1) Pharoahs and Pyramids: Pharoah is a title used to refer to the kings of godly status in
ancient Egypt. Sometime in the 27the century B.C.E. Imhotep decided that pharaoh
needed a great monument to his person, power, and position in Egyptian society, and so
designed the “Step Pyramid”, the first great monument in world history built entirely of
dressed stone. These buildings serve 2 purposes; Zoser’s ka would have what it needed to
rule in the afterlife, and the many building with their immovable doors and labyrinthine
passageways would frustrate tomb robbers, a chronic problem as pharaonic burials
became richer. In Fourth Dynasty these pyramids were the symbols of Egyptian
civilization.
2) Nomes: Upper Egypt was known to the Pharaohs as Shemau and was divided into
twenty-two areas called nomes. The first nome was roughly where modern Aswan is and
the twenty-second was at modern Atfih, just to the south of Cairo.
3) Upper and Lower Nile: Lower Egypt is to the north and is that part where the Nile
delta flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Upper Egypt is to the south from the Libyan
Desert down to just past Abu Simbel.
The reason for this apparent upside-down naming is that Egypt was considered the "Gift
of the Nile" and as such everything was measured in relation to the river. The Nile enters
Egypt in the country's southern heights, winding its way down (north) until exiting via
the fertile delta of the Egyptian lowlands into the Mediterranean Sea.
4) Afterlife: Ancient Egyptians believe that after death, the deceased’s ka, or other
worldly existence, would have to roam the underworld, the Duat, searching for the House
of Judgment, where Osiris and forty-two other judges would decide its fate. At the end of
the judgment, the god Anubis weights the heart of the deceased in front of the judges,
placing it in the scales with the father of the goddess Ma’at. Only if the heart and the
father were in perfect balance did the dead person achieve immortality as an aspect of the
god.
5) Narmar/Menes and Zoser: Narmer was an Egyptian pharoah who ruled in the 32nd
century BC. The successor of Serket, he is considered by some to be the founder of the
First dynasty. The famous Narmer Palette, discovered in 1898, shows Narmer displaying
the insignia of both Upper and Lower Egypt, giving rise to the theory that he unified the
two kingdoms.
Menes was an Egyptian pharaoh of the First dynasty of Egypt, to some authors the
founder of this dynasty, to others the second. He is generally credited with uniting Upper
and Lower Egypt into one kingdom.
Some Egyptologists hold that Menes and Narmer are in fact the same person; some hold
that Menes inherited an already-unified Egypt from Narmer; others hold that Narmer
began the process of unification but either did not succeed or succeeded only partially,
leaving it to Menes to complete.
Djoser (also known as Zoser) is the best-known pharaoh of the Third dynasty of Egypt,
for commissioning his vizier Imhotep to build his Step Pyramid at Saqqara.
6) Menetho: He was a Hellenistic Egyptian historian and a priest of Serapis in Heliopolis
during the reigns of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II. His magnum opus, Aegyptiaca, written in
Greek, which he wrote to contest errors he claimed existed in Herodotus's History, was
the most important source for the history of Ancient Egypt before the successful
translation of the Egyptian language. Even now, it remains a major primary source for its
aid in compiling and systematizing ancient Egyptian Pharaonic dynasties into the order
that still serves as a basis by the historians. The titles of his other works include The
Sacred Book, and An Epitome of Physical Doctrines. Much of what the ancient Greek and
Latin authors write about Egyptian religion is believed to come from Manetho's works.
7) Ma’at: The father of the goddess in ancient Egyptian myth. In Egyptians’ definition,
the great cycle of life, death and the return of life was ma’at. Our concepts of harmony,
order, justice, and trust would all fir comfortably within ma’at. Both abstract notion and
its personification as a female deity named Ma’at were what kept the universe running in
its sense, repetitive, predictable fashion.
8) Vizier: It is an Arabic term for a high-ranking religious and political advisor, often to
a king or sultan. In ancient Egypt the second important person after the pharaoh was the
vizier as a general governor. Among the Huns, the vizier was the second in rank officer
after the great king.
9) Hyksos ca. 1570: The Hyksos (ancient Egyptian: "rulers of foreign countries") were a
Semitic people, who invaded Ancient Egypt around 1710 BC, using the chariot and
composite bow as new weapons of war. The Hyksos ruled Egypt for over a century, until
they were finally defeated by Pharaoh Amasis I.
10) Ahmose I: He was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Eighteenth
dynasty. He was the son of king Tao II Seqenenre and brother of king Kamose, the last
king of the Seventeenth dynasty. Ahmose lost his father and his brother in very short
notice during the struggle against the Hyksos princes, who still ruled in the north-east of
the Nile Delta.
11) Thutmose I and II: Thutmose I was the 3rd Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt.
He ruled from 1504 BC to 1492 BC. He was the father of the Pharaohs Thutmose II and
Hatshepsut and was the first Pharaoh to be buried in the Valley of the Kings.
Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I. He was not fully royal and he married his fully
royal half-sister, Hatshepsut, to secure his rule. He successfully put down rebellions in
Nubia and the Levant and defeated a group of nomadic Bedouins. Thutmose II had two
daughters with Hatshepsut, Nefrure and Meritre, but managed to father a male heir,
Thutmose III, by a lesser wife named Isis before his death.
12) Amenhotep IV becomes Akhenaton; married to Nefertiti:
He was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. His chief wife was Nefertiti. T
couple had six known daughters. In year 4 of his reign, Amenhotep IV started his famous
worship of Aten. This year is also believed to mark the beginning of his construction of a
new capital, Akhetaten, at the site known today as Amarna. In year 5 of his reign IV
officially changed his name to Akhenaten as evidence of his new worship. In year 7 of
his reign the capital was moved from Thebes to Amarna, though construction of the city
seems to have continued for two more years.
13) Tutankhamen: He was Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, during the
period known as the New Kingdom. His original name Tutankhaten means "Living
Image of Aten" while Tutankhamun means "Living Image of Ammon. Tutankhamun
ruled Egypt for eight to ten years and examinations of his mummy suggest that he was a
seventeen or eighteen year old man when he died. In year 3 of his reign, Tutankhamun
restored the old pantheon of gods and their temples, granted the traditional privileges
back to their priesthoods, and moved the capital back to Thebes.
14) Hatshepsut: She was the fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. She ruled
from 1473 BC to 1458 BC and is regarded as the first female monarch in recorded history.
15) Difference between pharaohs and gods; subtle but different: The pharaohs are the
real people or kings who ruled the ancient Egypt and were considered as deities, but not
the gods like in a myth.
16) Seth, Hathor, Isis, Horus, Re, Aton, Osiris: In the Jewish and Christian Bible, Seth
is explained as meaning "foundation." According to this tradition, Seth was perceived as
the "Foundation of the World," since he was the first person born of human parents and
the ancestor of all mankind.
In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was an extremely popular fertility goddess, associated
with the cow. Her name refers to her position as the celestial cow which encircles the sky
and hawk god, Horus. She was also a goddess of royalty. Her cult was centered in
Dendera and was led by priests who were also dancers, singers or other artists, for she
was a goddess of art as well. Her priests were also oracles and midwives.
Isis is the goddess of motherhood and fertility in ancient Egypt. She is a life-death-rebirth
deity as well as one of the Ennead. Later, she acquired the goddess Sopdet.
Horus is the falcon-headed god of ancient Egyptian mythology. Like many other gods
the nature of what he was and the legends and stories that went with him changed over
the course of history. Horus was an amalgamation of other, related deities, all of whom
were sun gods and associated with the royal prerogative and the sky.
Ra (sometimes spelled Re) is the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt. He was a selfcreating god, fashioning himself from Mehturt, a mound that came from the waters of Nu,
or a lotus flower. He also created Shu and Tefnut out of his semen or mucus, Hu and Sia
from the blood from his penis and humanity from his tears.
Osiris is one of the most important of the Ancient Egyptian deities. He is a life-deathrebirth deity. He was eventually buried in the city of Abydos, of which he was the patron
deity. Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld, as well as a fertility and
agricultural deity. With his wife, Isis, he was the father of Horus. Beb was described as
his first-born son. Later, he was combined with Seker and Ptah to create Ptah-SekerOsiris and was also identified with Heryshaf.
17) Ba: After the death of an individual, the Ba was the shell or physical body that
remained on Earth in its tomb. At some point the Ba was to reunite with the Ka and thus
the body was mummified. Should the body be destroyed it was believed that a stone
sculpture would suffice.
18) Ka: The Ka was the spiritual soul of a person or a god, a type of mana. The Ka was
created by Mesenet along with the physical form of the person, and then continued to the
underworld after the death of the physical body.
19) Coptic: The Coptic language is the last descendant of the Egyptian language, still
used in the liturgy of the Coptic Church. Although the Coptic alphabet (which is based on
the Greek alphabet) is the source of the Nubian alphabet, the languages are unrelated.
Nubian is Nilo-Saharan.
20) Hieroglyphics: Hieroglyphs are a system of writing used by the Ancient Egyptians.
It is a combination of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements. Hieroglyphics
consisted of three kinds of characters: phonetic characters, including single-sound
characters, like an alphabet, but also many representing one or more syllables, ideographs,
representing a word, and determinatives, which indicate the semantic category of a
spelled-out word without indicating its precise meaning.
21) Karnak: Karnak is a village in Egypt that was once part of the ancient capital of
Egypt, Thebes. It is situated about 2 miles north of Luxor.
For many centuries Karnak temple was the main religious centre of Egypt, with each
Pharaoh adding to or altering the complex. It was the main temple for the cult of Amon,
but like many other Egyptian temples, other gods and goddesses were worshipped there.
22) Thebes: Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New
Kingdoms. Located on the banks of the Nile — with temples, palaces, and the city of the
living on the east side, and the Theban Necropolis on the west — Thebes and its
archaeological remains offers a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height.
23) Khufu: Khufu was a Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt's 4th dynasty, reigning from around
2589 BC to 2566 BC. He was the son of King Sneferu, and Queen Hetepheres, and unlike
his father, was remembered as a cruel and ruthless Pharaoh. Khufu had several sons and
his immediate successor was his son Djedefre. He is most famous for the construction of
the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World.
24) Luxor: Luxor is a town in Upper Egypt. It has often been called the 'world's greatest
open air museum', with the ruins of the temple complex at Karnak, Luxor temple, and the
monuments, temples and tombs on the West Bank of the Nile, including the Valley of the
Kings and Valley of the Queens.
25) Memphis: Memphis was the ancient capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its
foundation until around 1300 BC. The ruins are 19 km south of Cairo on the West Bank
of the Nile. The city was founded around 3100 BC by Menes of Tanis, who united the
two kingdoms of Egypt. Memphis reached a peak of prestige under the 6th Dynasty as a
centre of the cult of Ptah. It declined briefly after the 18th Dynasty with the rise of
Thebes and was revived under the Persian satraps before falling into firm second place
following the foundation of Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire, Alexandria remained
the most important city. It remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of al
Fustat in 641. Memphis was then largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the
surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the 12th century but soon
became little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone. The remains of the
temple of Ptah and of Apis have been uncovered at the site as well as a few statues,
including two four metre ones in alabaster of Ramses II. The Saqqara necropolis is close
to Memphis. It is believed that Memphis was the largest city in the world from its
foundation until around 2250 BC. Its population was over 30,000.