Name ............................
Colossi of Memnon,
Valley of the Kings
Alexandria
Mediterranean Sea
Rosetta
Cairo
Karnak
Thebes
Red Sea
ean Sea
BC
3100
2700
2600
1800
1400
1336-1327
1279-1213
1184-1153
525-404
360-343
343-332
332
51-30
30
Class ......................
a
Upper and lower Egypt unified
Step pyramid built
Great pyramid built
2686-2181 Old Kingdom
Smaller brick pyramids built
2133-1780 Middle Kingdom
Temples built at Karnak and Luxor
1560-1085 New Kingdom
Tutankhamun ruled
Ramses II ruled
Ramses III ruled
Persians occupied Egypt
Nectanebo, the last Pharoah, ruled
Persians ruled Egypt
Alexander the Great invaded Egypt
Cleopatra reigned
Egypt became part of the Roman Empire
The River Nile
Mediterran
EGYPT
E
Se
Philae
Nubian Desert
N
d
Saqqara
El-Amarna
Giza
Memphis
Abydos
NUBIA
Edfu
Deir el-Bahri
Valley of the Kings
Abu Simbel
CUSH
W
Riv
S
Re
Queen Hatshepsut’s
temple, Deir el-Bahri
Sphinx, Giza
Tomb, Abu Simbel
Temples, Karnak
Lighthouse,
Alexandria
Pyramids, Giza
Set 3: A Past Non-European Society
Poster 6
A
B
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ile
National Curriculum
TEACHER’S NOTES
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Background information
Extension activities
The Nile
Read the text and then answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper.
1 Why do you think that “A rise of 18 ells meant disaster”?
2 What was the river Nile used as?
3 What were the boats of the ancient Egyptians made from?
4 What do you think the priest meant when he wrote “You who feed men and
animals”?
Activity
Hail to you, O Nile
You have come to feed Egypt
When you flood the land rejoices
Joy when you come, O Nile!
Joy when you come!
You who feed men and animals
Joy when you come!
The Egyptian people used the Nile as their
transport route. They travelled in boats made
from wood or from bundles of papyrus stalks
tied together. Many poems and songs have
been written about the Nile. A priest wrote
this one:
An ell was about 1.5 metres. At 18 ells high the river would wash away all the crops
and the houses!
A rise of 12 ells meant hunger
A rise of 13 ells meant suffering
A rise of 14 ells meant happiness
A rise of 15 ells meant security
A rise of 18 ells meant disaster
Without the River Nile, the Egyptian civilisation would not have existed. Each year the
river flooded its banks. The height to which the water rose determined how well the
crops would grow. A Roman visitor to Egypt wrote:
Set 3: A Past Non-European Society Poster 6: The River Nile
RO
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Geography
Link with Geography to find Egypt on a world map
or globe.
Cross-curricular links
Pupils could find out more about the Nile and its use
in transporting goods, fishing, hunting, leisure, and
moving stone for building.
Pupils could research the monuments mentioned and
find out how archaeologists have made discoveries
from the remains of the buildings, etc.
TE
The Nile was a rich source of food. It provided fish
and larger game such as crocodiles and
hippopotamuses. Marshes were home to waterfowl
which were hunted. It supplied water for drinking
and for irrigating the land to grow crops.
The earliest boats were made from bundles of
papyrus reeds lashed together and coated with pitch.
By 3000 BC, however, the Egyptians had developed
large wooden sea-going vessels which had huge
rectangular sails made from papyrus or cotton. These
ships were made from planks of cedar imported from
Lebanon. Most boats were transport barges, grain
ships or simple sailing boats. Larger boats were used
for special ceremonies and occasions.
The Nile not only supplied the annual floods which
enriched the land used for farming on either side, it
was also the main highway from one end of the
country to the other. The Greek traveller Herodotus
described ancient Egypt as “the gift of the Nile”
which is very apt.
KG
This poster could be used in conjunction with Poster
8: The Farming Year.
BA
Activities
KS2 Study Unit 6
Ancient Egypt
a key features, including the everyday lives of men and
women
b the use of archaeology in finding out about the people
and society
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Pearson Publishing, Chesterton Mill, French’s Road, Cambridge CB4 3NP Tel 01223 350555
The additional pupil sheet on the right provides
some information on the Nile and questions for the
pupils based on the text.
The right-hand side of the poster provides a blank
timeline and some key dates for use with the
timeline. Pupils should cut out the timeline, stick it
together and paste it onto a card backing which
should be larger than the timeline to allow space for
writing dates and possibly drawing pictures. Note
that the timeline should be constructed as follows:
Flap A stuck under left-hand side of the middle strip;
flap B stuck under left-hand side of the bottom strip.
The graduations should be marked in multiples of
500 years, ie start at the left of timeline with 3000
BC, then 2500, 2000, 1500, 1000, 500 and lastly 0.
The first activity is for the pupils to identify the
right position on the map for each of the monuments
and to stick them in place. (From the top of the map
they should be in the following order: the lighthouse
at Alexandria built by Alexander the Great; the
sphinx and pyramids at Giza; the temple of Queen
Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri; the temples at Karnak;
the Colossi of Memnon in the Valley of the Kings;
and the tomb of Ramses II at Abu Simbel.) Pupils
may wish to draw lines to join the monuments to the
correct position and also shade in the land, river and
sea in appropriate colours.
This poster can be used to introduce ancient Egypt,
the Nile and some of the famous buildings and
monuments that have survived to the present day.
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Oven
Name ............................
Bedroom
Kitchen
Set 3: A Past Non-European Society
Poster 10
Roofing of
branches and
straw
Door to
street
Living room
Entrance hall
with decorative with steps to
column
roof
An Egyptian House
Cellar with
storage jars
Child playing
on roof
Class ......................
Weaving
thread
National Curriculum
TEACHER’S NOTES
T I ONA
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Activities
KS2 Study Unit 6
Ancient Egypt
a key features, including the everyday lives of men and
women
b the use of archaeology in finding out about the people
and society
TI
AC
This poster introduces pupils to everyday life in
ancient Egypt and, in particular, to the type of home
that the average family would have had.
The main activity on the front of the poster is to
match the labels to the different parts of the house
and the activities taking place. The picture can also
be coloured in.
The extra pupil sheet on the right looks at how
archaeology has been used to help us find out about
the ancient Egyptians.
RO
Background information
A recipe is also provided for pupils to try. 10-15
sweets can be made. Note that they will get very
sticky hands and protective aprons should be worn!
KG
BA
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Extension activities
Cross-curricular links
50 ml water
50 g chopped walnuts
50 g ground almonds
Method
Make sure your hands are clean before you start.
1 Mix the chopped dates with water. (Use a blender for this if you have one.)
2 Stir in the cinnamon and cardamon seeds.
3 Add the walnuts and mix in with your hands.
4 Shape the mixture into small balls.
5 Roll them in the almonds. They are now ready to eat!
1/2
Ingredients
200 g sugar rolled, chopped dates
1 teaspoon cinnamon
teaspoon cardamon seeds
This recipe for Egyptian sweets was found inscribed on a stone tablet. The Egyptians
loved sweet foods.
Date and nut sweets
The death mask of Tutankhamun was made of solid
gold. His tomb and treasure were discovered in the
Valley of the Kings in 1922. It was one of the most
exciting discoveries in the history of archaeology.
Models of buildings were also made by the Egyptians.
Some have been found and they have also helped us to
find out about their way of life.
Since many of the houses were made of mud, there is very little archaeological evidence
about the villages as they have been washed away over the years. However, some
villages were built to house the workers who built the pyramids and temples. These
villages were in the desert and so the sand has preserved them.
By studying the remains of temples, tombs, objects, inscriptions and wall paintings they
have pieced together clues about their way of life.
Archaeologists have found evidence which shows us how the ancient Egyptians lived.
How do we know?
Set 3: A Past Non-European Society Poster 10: An Egyptian House
the walls painted with a bright border and the
ceilings also painted.
Most people lived in villages or towns where the
houses were crammed close together. The houses may
have been joined to others on either side due to the
shortage of land and because no one wanted to live in
the desert. The fertile land alongside the river was
needed for growing crops. Houses were only built on
the east bank of the Nile because the west bank was
where the dead were buried. The ancient Egyptians
believed that the dead travelled into the west, like
the sun, and that they would awake to a new life.
Rooms were square with small windows which
helped to keep them cool. A main central room was
surrounded by smaller rooms, although very poor
people may have had just one room. Many houses
also had cellars for storage and the yard would have
been used as a kitchen area. The Egyptians had very
little furniture, just a few stools and small tables.
Wooden chests, blankets and jars would have been
used for storing possessions. People slept on the floor
on mats or on the roof.
NSI
Richer Egyptians also had large gardens with neat
paths, pools and a pavilion. Gardeners would have
been employed to keep them watered and to tend
plants.
TE
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Consider how the houses of the rich differed from
those of the poor.
Pupils can find out what the ancient Egyptians
looked like and what types of clothes they wore.
EX
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Most of the houses in ancient Egypt were built in a
similar style. The houses of both the rich and the
poor were built from sun-dried bricks made from
Nile mud. The mud was collected in buckets and
taken to the building site where it was mixed with
straw and pebbles. The mixture was then put into
hollow wooden moulds in the shape of bricks and
then left in the sun to dry for two or three days.
S
Art
Make masks out of papier mâché and decorate them
with rich patterns like the death mask of
Tutankhamun.
Pearson Publishing, Chesterton Mill, French’s Road, Cambridge CB4 3NP Tel 01223 350555
Once built, the walls were coated in mud plaster
which may have been whitewashed. In finer houses,
the floors would have been covered with brick tiles,
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