Ancient Nile Kingdoms
Presentation created by Robert Martinez
Primary Content Source: Prentice Hall World History
Images as cited.
ancient-egypt.info
In ancient times, farming villages dotted
the narrow band of land watered by the
Nile. Beyond the rich, irrigated “Black
Land,” generally no more than 10 miles
wide, lay the “Red Land,” a sun-baked
desert that stretches across North Africa.
goldhistorian.blogspot.com
prntrkmt.org
Farmers took advantage of the fertile soil
of the Nile Valley to grow wheat and flax,
a plant whose fibers were used for
clothing.
visav.phys.uvic.ca
The Nile rises in the highlands of Ethiopia and
the lakes of central Africa. Every spring, rains
in this interior region send water racing down
streams that feed the Nile River. In ancient
times, Egyptians eagerly awaited the annual
flood. It soaked the land with life-giving water
and deposited a layer of rich silt.
cruises.about.com
People had to cooperate to control the
Nile floods. They built dikes, reservoirs,
and irrigation ditches to channel the
rising river and store water for the dry
season.
egy-king.blogspot.com
Ancient Egypt had two distinct regions.
Upper Egypt in the south and Lower
Egypt in the north. Upper Egypt
stretched from the first cataract, or
waterfall, of the Nile northward to within
100 miles of the Mediterranean.
thesoftmanias.blogspot.com
Lower Egypt
covered the delta
region where the
Nile empties into the
Mediterranean. A
delta is a triangular
area of marshland
formed by deposits
of silt at the mouth
of some rivers.
franklin.ma.us
About 3100 B.C.E., Menes,
the king of Upper Egypt,
united the two regions. He
and his successors used
the Nile as a highway
linking north and south.
They could send officials or
armies to towns along the
river. The Nile thus helped
make Egypt the world’s
first unified state.
cardsmall.wordpress.com
The river also served as a trade route.
Egyptian merchants traveled up and
down the Nile in sailboats and barges,
exchanging the products of Africa, the
Middle East, and the Mediterranean
world.
britannica.com
The history of ancient Egypt is divided
into three main periods, the Old
Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the
New Kingdom. Although power passed
from one dynasty to another, the land
generally remained united.
tigtail.org
During the Old Kingdom, Egyptian rulers called
pharaohs organized a strong, centralized state.
Pharaohs claimed divine support for their rule.
Egyptians believed the pharaoh was a god. The
pharaoh thus had absolute power, owning, and
ruling all the land in the kingdom.
pharaohsandpyramids.blogspot.com
Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom took pride in
preserving justice and order. A pharaoh
depended on a vizier, or chief minister, to
supervise the business of government. Under
the vizier, various departments looked after such
matters as tax collection, farming, and the
irrigation system. Thousands of scribes carried
out the vizier’s instructions.
love-egypt.com
During the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians built
the majestic pyramids that still stand at Giza.
The pyramids were tombs for eternity. Because
Egyptians believed in an afterlife, they
preserved the bodies of their dead rulers and
provided them with everything they would
need in their new lives.
fanpop.com
bbc.co.uk
To complete the
pyramids, workers
hauled and lifted
millions of limestone
blocks, some weighing
two tons or more. The
builders had no iron
tools or wheeled
vehicles. Workers
quarried the stones by
hand, pulled them on
sleds to the site, and
hoisted them up
earthen ramps.
Building a pyramid took so long that
often a pharaoh would begin to build his
tomb as soon as he inherited the throne.
historyonthenet.com
The pyramids suggest the strength of
ancient Egyptian civilization. These costly
projects required enormous planning and
organization. Thousands of farmers, who
had to be fed each day, worked on the
pyramids when not planting or harvesting
crops.
bbc.co.u
k
Power struggles, crop failures, and the
cost of the pyramids contributed to the
collapse of the Old Kingdom. After more
than a century of disunity, new pharaohs
reunited the land, ushering in the Middle
Kingdom.
earlyworldhistory.blogspot.com
The Middle Kingdom was a turbulent
period. The Nile did not rise as regularly
as it had. Corruption and rebellions were
common. Still, strong rulers did organize
a large drainage project, creating vast
new stretches of farmable land.
historyandcivilization
Egyptian armies
occupied part of Nubia,
the gold-rich land to
the south. Traders also
had greater contacts
with the peoples of the
Middle East and the
Mediterranean island of
Crete.
pharaonic-egy.blogspot
Catastrophe struck about 1700 B.C.E.
when foreign invaders, the Hyksos,
occupied the delta region. They awed the
Egyptians with their horse-drawn
chariots. In time, the Egyptians mastered
this new military technology.
flickr.com
The Hyksos, in turn, were impressed by
Egyptian civilization. They soon adopted
Egyptian customs, beliefs, and even
names. Finally, after more than 100 years,
new Egyptian leaders arose. They drove
out the Hyksos and set up the New
Kingdom.
en.wikipedia.org
During the New Kingdom, powerful and
ambitious pharaohs created a large empire. At
its height, the Egyptian empire reached the
Euphrates River. This age of conquest brought
Egypt into greater contact with southwestern
Asia as well as other parts of Africa.
media1.mweb.co.za
gnosis.us.com
One monarch of the New Kingdom,
Hatshepsut was a woman who exercised
all the rights of a pharaoh. From 1503
B.C.E. to 1482 B.C.E., she encouraged
trade with eastern Mediterranean lands
and along the Red Sea coast of Africa.
eyelid.co.uk
The most powerful pharaoh of the New
Kingdom was Ramses II. Between 1290 B.C.E.
and 1224 B.C.E., Ramses pushed Egyptian rule
northward as far as Syria. On temples and
monuments, he boasted of his conquests,
though his greatest reported victory may not
actually have taken place.
s9.com
In a battle against the Hittites of Asia Minor,
only the desperate bravery of Ramses himself
prevented a crushing defeat. Back home,
Ramses had inscriptions carved on a
monument that made the near defeat sound
like a stunning victory.
touregypt.net
After years of fighting,
the Egyptians and
Hittites signed a
peace treaty, the first
such document
known to have
survived in history. It
declared that Egypt
and the Hittites “shall
be at peace and in
brotherhood forever.”
en.wikipedia.org
After Ramses II, Egyptian power slowly
declined. Invaders, such as the Assyrians and
Persians, conquered the Nile region. Later,
Greek and Roman armies came from the north.
Each new conqueror was eager to add the
fertile Nile Valley to a growing empire.
fravahr.org
The Nile kingdom of Nubia (known also
as Kush) developed to the south of
Egypt. For centuries, Egyptians traded or
fought with their southern neighbor.
From Nubia, they acquired ivory, cattle,
and slaves. During the new kingdom,
Egypt conquered Nubia.
en.wikipedia.org
Ramses II used gold from Nubia to pay
charioteers in his army. Nubians served
in Egyptian armies and left their mark on
Egyptian culture. Much Egyptian art of
this period shows Nubian soldiers,
musicians, or prisoners.
abovetopsecret.com
As Egypt declined,
Nubia regained its
independence. In
750 B.C.E., Nubian
kings marched
north, adding Egypt
to their own lands.
For 100 years, the
Nubian empire
stretched from what
is today Sudan to
the Mediterranean.
blackvikingen.blogspot.com
The Nubians saw themselves not as
foreign conquerors but as restorers of
Egyptian glory. They ruled Egypt like
earlier pharaohs, respecting ancient
Egyptian traditions.
jandyongenesis.blogspot.com
About 650 B.C.E., Assyrians, armed
with iron weapons, descended on
Egypt. They pushed the Nubians back
into their original homeland, where
Nubian monarchs ruled for 1,000 years
more.
ninevehmarket.com