ANCIENT EGYPT

Egypt

Egypt is located in Africa and its population is 109,299 ,885. The capital city of Egypt is Cairo but it has many other amazing cities such as: Mut, El Giza, Idfu, Aswan, Qena. The neighbouring countries are Libya and Sudan.

Egypt has coast lines on The Mediterranean Sea and The Red Sea. Egypt is well known for the famous River that passes though it, The River Nile. Did you know it is the longest river in the world?

This is a map of Egypt.

This is a picture of the River Nile.

Pyramids

The Great Pyramid

Mastaba

Step pyramid

Bent pyramid

Red pyramid

The Great Pyramid

One of the seven wonders of the world because it is largest pyramid in Egypt
It is 5 miles west of the River Nile and is close to the capital city, Cairo

Mastaba

The Mastaba was the original influence for the creation of the pyramids.
It is a flat topped building with sloped sides and was built over a burial chamber which was carved deep into the group bellow
The burial chambers were lined with wood and decorated with paintings
At ground level there were rooms that contained offerings for the dead
The word 'mastaba' comes from the Arabic word for 'bench'

The Step Pyramid

The first pyramid was the Djoser Step Pyramid which was built in south Cairo. It started as a traditional flat roofed Mastaba .
It has six tiers and was built in stages.
Each step was made from rough stones before it was covered in limestone.
The limestone was polished to make it look like the pyramid is gleaming
The burial chambers of the step pyramid were underground.

The Bent Pyramid

The Bent Pyramid was created by accident and it was King Sneferu's attempt at building the first smooth sided Pyramid. However, when they began building it the slope was too steep and the building engineers realised it was unstable. To fix this problem, the angle of the slope was changed to make it more shallow.
King Sneferu learnt from his mistakes and created the Red Pyramid.

The Red Pyramid

Gets its name from The Reddish Sandstone used to construct it it has the Third Largest Pyramid in Egypt and stands at 104 metres tall it has the second Largest base of all Egyptian Pyramid each side measures 220 metres

Most of the outer while limestone casing was removed and used to build the capital city Cairo

The Afterlife

Ancient Egyptians believed the afterlife was a place you went to when you died. The journey was dangerous and scary!

Read below to find out why the heart was weighed, why the person needed Shabti dolls and why the Book of the Dead was so important.

The Journey To The Afterlife

First of all a priest will prepare a tomb for the body. The items placed in the tomb are a few Shabti dolls amulets food and many other items.
After that another few priest will do a ceremony called the Opening of the Mouth . So then the body can eat and talk in the Afterlife.
Next, the body has reached the Underworld (Duat) . The dead person will have to read spells and prayers from the book of the dead to make it across safely.
After the body has the body will now be judged by 42 mummify gods. The gods will ask if the body has done any sins, but the scarab amulet will keep the secrets. So the body will say No. Then the body will pass.
Next the body's heart will now be weighed against Ma'at's feather on a scale. If the heart is heavier than Ma'at's feather then the body's heart will be devoured by Ammit . If the heart is lighter then the body will pass.
Now, Ra will take the body to Osiris (The god of the underworld) will let the body pass through the magical gate leading to the afterlife in the Field Of Reeds.

Shabti Dolls

The Book of the Dead

Amults

Sarcophagus

The Rosetta Stone

Hieroglyphics

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is famous because it helped specialists to decode the Ancient Egyptians hieroglyphic script. It took 20 years to decode!!

It was discovered in 1799 and was inscribed in three parts. The top and middle texts were written in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script and the bottom was written in Ancient Greek.

Here is the Ancient Egyptian alphabet

Can you crack the code?

The Ancient Egyptians

Not everyone could read or write in Ancient Egypt, however those that could were called scribes. The Ancient Egyptians thought it was important to write down information about there lives, their kings and queens. That's how we know so much about them today! In school, the scribes would be taught how to care hieroglyphics. Many students would spend hours writing!

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Anubis

The god of mummification and the afterlife
His jackal head was thought to be inspired by wild dogs and jackals that often lurked around cemeteries
Priests often wore jackal-headed Anubis masks while mummifying bodies

Osiris

The god of the dead and ruler of the Underworld
He married the goddess Isis and father Horus
He was also the god of agriculture (farming that produces food).It said that Osiris taught Egyptians how to grow crops

The god of the sun
Considered to be the most important god of them all.
Often shown with the head of a falcon (a bird of prey)
Ancient Egyptians believed that Ra sailed across the sky in a boat, everyday.
It was believed that Ra died every evening (sunset) and was reborn every morning (sunrise)

Hathor

Goddess of many things, such as love, music, dance and the sky.
Fun fact, she sometimes appeared in the form of a cow.
It was believed that she often helped women with love and health problems.

Sekhmet

goddess of war and fire ,she was also know for being the goddess of medicine and healing.
she was often shown with the head of a lion.
she was the daughter of Ra.

Ma'at

The goddess of truth, justice, harmony and balance
Ancient Egyptian believed that once a person died, their heart was weighed on a scale and balanced against Ma'at feather. This would help to decide whether the person's spirit could pass through to the afterlife.

Nut and Geb

Nut was Goddess of the sky and Geb was the god of the earth.
They are the parents of Osiris and Set.
It was believed that each night, Nut would swallow Ra (the sun god) before he was reborn again in the morning.

Horus

God of the sky.
He was the protector of the rulers of Egypt.
Ancient Egyptians believed the Pharaoh was the living Horus.
Wears a double crown. The red represents upper Egypt and the white represents lower Egypt.

Thoth

God of the sky
Ancient Egyptians believed that Thoth gave them the gift of hieroglyphics, languages and music.

Set (also known as Seth)

God of war, chaos and storms.
Connected to solar eclipses and earthquakes.
Set killed his own brother, Osiris, because he was jealous of his power in Egypt.

Horus

Nut and Geb

Thoth

Ma'at

Hathor

Sekhmet

Anubis

Osiris

Set (Seth)

Mummification

Ancient Egyptians used to mummify people when they died, this would help to preserve the body ready for the afterlife. To begin with, Ancient Egyptians used to bury the bodies in sand. However, animals kept digging them up and eating them! In order to stop this from happening, they started to put the bodies in coffins and tombs (to keep them safe.)

Now let's talk about how they actually mummified the bodies...

Method

First of all take the body to a place called the beautiful house then carefully rinse the body with the Nile water with the palm wine.
After you have rinsed the body remove the intestines, lungs, liver and stomach and place them in the 4 canopic jars. Place the stomach in the jackal head, put the liver in the human head, place the lungs in the baboon head, then put the intestines in the falcon head.
Next, grab a extra large hook and shove it up the nostril and whisk the brain out carefully.
Then carefully insert some natron inside the body and wait for 40-50 days to let the body dry out. Add a few spices to make the body smell pleasant. It will smell really amazing like beautiful perfume.
After you have filled the body clean the body to get rid of the natron inside the body.
Finally slowly wrap the body in linen to keep it safe on the journey to the Afterlife. When you have wrapped the body place the body place the scarab beetle on top of the heart and place the book of the dead on the body to help it on its journey to the Afterlife.

Canopic Jars

Natron (salt)

Mummified body

Digital Art

These are our Egyptian pyramid pictures we created on purple mash. We got our inspiration from Van Gogh 'Starry night'.

Our Egypt song

In our music lessons we have been learning to play the Ukulele. Although this is not an ancient Egyptian musical instrument we have used it to accompany our Egyptian Song:

"What Shall We Do With A Mummified Pharaoh?"

We hope that you enjoy listening to our composition.

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