1. Ancient Egypt Part 1

2. The Nile River Valley • Between 6000 and 5000 BC, hunter-gatherers from Africa and southwest Asia moved into the green, fertile Nile River valley • They became the earliest Egyptians • Egypt is warm and sunny, with little rainfall • Relied on the Nile River

3. The Nile River • The world’s longest river – 4,000 miles • Begins as two separate rivers in the mountains of eastern and central Africa • Flows NORTH to the Mediterranean • The southern part of the Nile has wild rapids called cataracts • Make only the last 650 miles navigable by ships • Just before it reaches the Mediterranean, it divides into branches which fan out over an area of fertile soil called a delta

5. Satellite photo of northern portion of the Nile

8. The first of 10 cataracts along the Nile

9. Geography Protected the Egyptians • On both sides of the Nile are vast, hot deserts (The Red Land) • The Sahara Desert on the west • The Eastern Desert on the east • To the south, cataracts kept enemy boats out • To the north, the marshy delta offered no harbor for enemy ships coming by sea • Unlike Mesopotamia, Egypt rarely faced outside threats and the civilization was able to grow and prosper

10. Depending on the Nile • The Nile flooded, but in dependable, gentle way • Egyptians didn’t have to worry about destructive floods • Every summer, the Nile flooded leaving behind dark, fertile soil • Egyptians call this land Kemet, or The Black Land

12. Using the Nile • Egyptians were successful farmers • Grew wheat, barley, and flax • Used irrigation and built dikes to trap the floodwaters • Used papyrus, a reed that grows along the Nile to make baskets, rafts, and later for papermaking • Developed geometry to measure and divide fields

13. Papyrus reeds growing along the Nile

14. Papyrus raft

15. Papyrus ship