MAIN INFORMATION
Physical Geography
In Ancient Egypt, the geography consisted of mostly desert with some wetlands surrounding the Nile river and its tributaries. In Egypt, there are two main different regions. There is the "Black Land" and the "Red Land". The "Black Land" is the rich land made of black silt from the Nile river. The "Red Land" is the wide spans of the Sahara desert that protected Ancient Egypt from other civilizations. The "Red Land" also provided the Egyptians with the precious metals and semi-precious stones. The barren desert covered 90% of Egypt. Surrounding the Nile, there were wetlands consisting of reeds and black silt mud (hence the name "Black Land"). The black land was great for farming due to the fertile land. Annual river floods brought necessary nutrients to the farm lands next to the river. The Nile River was the main source of transportation for the Ancient Egyptians as well. Almost all of Ancient Egypt was built along the Nile River. Southern Egypt has some small mountains.
Culture in ancient egypt
Ancient Egypt had a very unique culture that no other cultures had.
Religion
Religion played a big part of Ancient Egyptian life. Ancient Egyptians were polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods. There are 33 main gods but many more that are lesser-known. Each of these gods are said to play a part in keeping peace and harmony in the civilization. The more important gods had temples where the temple priests and the pharaoh went to pray. The pharaoh earned the title of the Highest Priest of Every Temple. He performed rituals in tribute to the gods. However not just the pharaoh worshiped gods, lower class people would wear amulets of gods or goddesses to protect themselves from the evils of life.
daily life
LOWER CLASS LIFEA lower class person would wake up early in the morning to start work on his farm. His bed was made out of course linen sheets. He then went to eat a small breakfast. Lower class life was much different from upper class life. Lower class people were usually farmers who lived in small mud brick homes next to the Nile River and next to their farms. | MIDDLE CLASS LIFEA middle class person woke up in the morning to go to his job. He was a jeweler. He went into another room to eat a breakfast of bread and fruit. Middle class people were usually workers. They had jobs including jeweler, metal worker and scribe. They lived in homes decorated slightly and they might have one servant. |
UPPER CLASS LIFEAn upper class person would wake up late to see their servant standing next to their bed of fine linen. The servant would help them dress and make their large breakfast of fruit and bread. Nobleman had everything from fine linen to glass to gold. They got what they wanted and did not work. |
How is egypt Different?
Egypt was unlike most civilizations of its time. They had a different way of life from most other civilizations because of its unique location and many other factors.
Location
Egypt's location was different then the other civilizations. Egypt was located in the desert, which was a challenge. This was overcome by the fact that the Nile River was so close. Without the Nile river, life would have been much harder. However, the Nile river changed part of the barren desert into the rich black land that was perfect for farming. There location in the middle of the barren dessert also protected them from other civilizations and empires.
writing
Ancient Egypt was different in the respect that they wrote using hieroglyphs or picture writing. Egyptian hieroglyphs had drawings of daily life or special events. Symbols represented sounds or groups of sounds. The alphabet is represented differently from source to source because the exact alphabet is unsure. These hierogylphswere written on clay bricks or papyrus.
Overall, Egypt is a unique civilization because it is in a location in the desert no other civilization was and they had hieroglyphics. This writing separated them from Mesopotamian cuneiform and Chinese writing.
