Nile Valley Civilization

Egyptian

The Egyptian or Nile Valley Civilization flourished along the banks of the river
Nile

Its long narrow flooded plain was a magnet for life, attracting plants, people
and animals to its banks, making it ideal for the development of communities

The annual flooding of the river provided nutrient rich silt that helped in
growing wheat, flax and other crops

It was inhabited as far back as 700000 years ago by Neolithic and Paleolithic
man

Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley

through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago.

By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa became
increasingly hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate
along the river region.

Demography

The Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3100 BC with the political

unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh

Papyrus

Egyptian paper, made from papyrus, and pottery were mass-produced and
exported throughout the Mediterranean basin.

Papyrus was produced as early as 3000BC in Egypt, and sold to ancient

GreeceandRome.

Egyptian hieroglyphs, a phonetic writing system, served as the basis for the
Phoenician alphabet from which later alphabets were derived.

With this ability, writing and record keeping, the Egyptians developed one of
the if not the first decimal system.

Book of the dead drawn on papyrus

Burials

Mummification of the dead was not always practiced in Egypt.

Once the practice began, an individual was placed at a final resting place
through a set of rituals and protocol.

The Egyptian funeral was a complex ceremony including various monuments,

prayers, and rituals undertaken in honor of the deceased.

The poor, who could not afford expensive tombs, were buried in shallow
graves in the sand, and because of the arid environment they were often
naturally mummified.

Pyramids

The most famous pyramids are the Egyptian pyramidshuge structures built
of brick or stone, some of which are among the largest constructions by
humans.

Pyramids functioned as tombs for pharaohs.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest in the world

Pharoahs

Namer-3150 BC- Believed to be the same person as Menes and to have unified
Upper and Lower Egypt.

Sphinx

is a mythical creature with, as a minimum, the head of a human and the body
of a lion.

Sakkara
It is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the
Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis
Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid
of Djoser

Mastaba

It is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular

structure with outward sloping sides, constructed out of mud-bricks

Architecture

The obelisk symbolized the sky deityRaand during the brief religious
reformation of Akhenaten, was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten, the sun
disk.

The shapes of ancient Egyptianpyramidand Obelisk were derived from

natural phenomena associated with thesun(the sun-godRabeing the
Egyptians' greatest deity).It was also thought that the deity existed within
the structure.

The Egyptians also usedpillars extensively.

Technological

The Egyptians invented and used many simple machines, such as the ramp
and the lever, to aid construction processes.

They used rope trusses to stiffen the beam of ships.

Irrigation

Irrigation as the artificial application of water to the soil was used to some
extent in Ancient Egypt

In crop production it is mainly used to replace missing rainfall in periods of

drought, as opposed to reliance on direct rainfall (referred to as dryland
farming or as rainfed farming).

The water wheel originates from Ptolemaic Egypt. This is seen as an evolution
of the paddle-driven water-lifting wheels that had been known in Egypt a
century earlier.

Mathematics

The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and Rhind Mathematical Papyrus are socalled mathematical problem texts. They consist of a collection of problems
with solutions

Papyrus Anastasi I, and the Papyrus Wilbour from the time of Ramesses III
records land measurements.

Astronomy

The Egyptians were a practical people and this is reflected in their astronomy

Even before Upper and Lower Egypt were unified in 3000 BCE, observations of
the night sky had influenced the development of a religion in which many of
its principal deities were heavenly bodies.

In Lower Egypt, priests built circular mud-brick walls with which to make a
false horizon where they could mark the position of the sun as it rose at
dawn, and then with a plumb-bob note the northern or southern turning
points (solstices).

This allowed them to discover that the sun disc, personified as Ra, took 365
days to travel from his birthplace at the winter solstice and back to it

Meanwhile in Upper Egypt a lunar calendar was being developed based on the
behavior of the moon and the reappearance of Sirius in its heliacal rising after
its annual absence of about 70 days.

Key of life

The ankh (/k/ or /k/; Egyptian: IPA: [anax]; U+2625 or U+132F9 ),

also known as breath of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata (Latin meaning
"cross with a handle")

It represents the concept of eternal life

] The Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one
in each hand, arms crossed over their chest

Materials

Egyptian artists used a wide array of materials, both local and imported, from
very early in their history.

We find figurines carved from lapis lazulia lustrous blue stone that
originates in what is now Afghanistan and indicates the early presence of
robust trade routes.

Stone

Wood

Metals

Relief sculpture