Ancient Egypt - Two Lands / Three Kingdoms

Ancient Egypt

Two Lands / Three Kingdoms

The Nile is 4,000 miles long! It is the longest river in the world! There was a lot of land along the Nile on which to settle. The early people who settled along the Nile seem to settle in two main regions. One region was at the mouth of the Nile, where the Nile enters the Mediterranean Sea. The other main region was to the south, at the base of the mountains.

Multiple Choice

How long is the Nile River?

• 2,000 miles

• 4,000 miles

• 6,000 miles

• 8,000 miles

Multiple Choice

Upper Egypt was North of Lower Egypt.

• True

• False

Each of these regions had a king. It was easy to tell the kings apart by the color of their crown (which was more like a hat.) The king who ruled the people who lived in the north, at the mouth of the Nile, wore a Red Crown. Their land was called Lower Egypt. The king who ruled the people who lived in the south, at the base of the mountains, wrote a White Crown. Their land was called Upper Egypt.

These two regions were always fighting. They spoke the same language. They worshipped the same gods. They had the same culture. But, for some reason, they could not get along.

A Unified Egypt

About 5,000 years ago, King Menes ruled Upper Egypt, at the base of the mountains. He conquered Lower Egypt. These two regions were combined into one country. But it didn't help. The people kept fighting amongst themselves. To help his people think of themselves as one people, the king had a special crown made, a double crown. It was not white. It was not red. It was a mix of white and red. And it did the trick. The people started calling their combined land the "The Two Lands". Over time, "The Two Lands" became known as Egypt.

Multiple Choice

How many regions was Ancient Egypt divided into before its unification

• 2

• 3

• 4

Archaeologists divide ancient Egypt's history into three big blocks of time. In each block of time, all pharaohs behaved in a certain way. These blocks of time were called kingdoms. Scientists named these blocks the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom.

During the time of the Old Kingdom, pharaohs were buried in pyramids. It was time consuming to build a pyramid. It was expensive to build a pyramid. It was hard to hide a pyramid. These were all problems.

Multiple Choice

Which of these was not mentioned as a problem related to the burial of pharaohs in pyramids built during the Old Kingdom period of time.

• It was hard to find enough workers to build the pyramids.

• It was time consuming to build a pyramid.

• It was expensive to build a pyramid.

• It was hard to hide a pyramid.

In ancient Egypt, pyramids were built during the time of the Old Kingdom. Pyramids were tombs, royal tombs, where the ancient Egyptians buried their kings. The first pyramid was the Step Pyramid. It was built about 5,000 years ago! You could see it for miles!

Multiple Choice

About how many years ago were the first pyramids built?

• 1,000 years ago

• 2,000 years ago

• 3,000 years ago

• 5,000 years ago

Beautifully Decorated: Most pyramids were huge. They had rooms inside like store rooms, bedrooms, and even inside courtyards. Pyramids took many years to build. The inside walls of the pyramids were beautifully decorated.

False Doors: As well as messages and prayers and stories painted on the inside walls in hieroglyphics, the walls were also painted with fake doors. These were not painted to trick anyone into walking into a solid wall. Painted false doors were considered the connectors between the living and the dead.

All the ancient Egyptians made grave goods. They made little clay figures to do their work for them in their afterlife, and all kinds of little miniature things that would magically grow to whatever size they needed. Grave goods were made to be buried with them in their tombs. They did not want to be robbed of their comfort in their afterlife.

Multiple Choice

The ancient pyramids were actually quite small in size.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The ancient pyramids were not solid structures, but had lots of hidden rooms and passageways inside.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Painted false doors were designed to trick the grave robbers.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Ancient Egyptians made little clay figures to do their work for them in their afterlife.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Making grave goods was not a common practice among ancient Egyptians

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Ancient Egyptians believed that the miniature clay figures they included in their grave goods would magically grow to whatever size they needed in the afterlife.

• True

• False

Pharaohs also wanted their grave goods to stay buried with them. But Pharaohs' grave goods were treasures. Men were hired to guard the pyramid. The guards lived in a "pyramid city", located at the base of pyramid. Most guards had families with them. All of these people had to be fed and sheltered and clothed. That's how the guards were paid. That added more expense.

A pharaoh's grave goods were made of gold and encrusted with jewels. Since pyramids were huge, there was no hiding them. Everybody knew that a pyramid held great wealth. This tempted many robbers. So the expense of a pyramid was not only in construction costs, it continued after the pyramid was built.

Multiple Choice

Once the construction and stocking with grave goods of the ancient pyramids was complete there were really no more expenses to worry about with regards to their maintenance and upkeep.

• True

• False

Tomb Robbing

Tomb Robbing: To discourage theft, the punishment for robbing a tomb was severe. Traps and secret passages were built inside a pyramid to catch robbers. The pyramid was guarded. Just the same, robbers could not seem to resist the lure of the great wealth inside. Many tombs were successfully robbed.

Multiple Choice

The thought of being punished along with the fear of entering pyramids that were full of dead people was enough to keep grave robbers out.

• True

• False

After the time of the Old Kingdom, pyramids fell out of style. They cost a lot of time and money, and made it far too easy for robbers to know exactly where great wealth was buried.