SOCIAL STUDIES CHAPTER 3 OUTLINE: ANCIENT EGYPT AND NUBIA
SECTION 1: THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE NILE
I. Map and Introduction
-The waters of the Nile flow through ______________________ and Egypt and spill into the
___________________________________________________________.
-The Greek historian Herodotus wrote, “_________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________.”
-Herodotus had learned a basic truth: There would be no _______________________________
without the __________________________________.
II. The Course of the Nile
-The Nile River is the world’s longest river. It flows ___________________________ from its
sources in East Africa to the ____________________________________________________ for more
than ________________________________ miles.
-The Nile has two main sources. The __________________________ rises in the highlands of
________________________________ and races down to the desert in thundering torrents.
-The ___________________________________ is calmer. It begins deep in ________________________
and flows northward through swamps.
-The ______________________ Nile and the _____________________Nile meet in __________________.
-Just north of the point where the _______________________ and _____________________ Nile
meet, the Nile makes two huge bends. It forms an S shape ____________________________
in length. The northern tip of the S is at the city of ______________________ in Egypt.
Along this stretch of Nile was _________________, an ancient region in the Nile River
valley.
-The Nubian section of the Nile contained ___________________________________________, or
rock-filled rapids. Between the first and second cataract was _______________________
_________________________. Because it rarely rained there, people had to live close to the
Nile for their _______________________________________________.
-Father south between the second and sixth cataracts, lies the area that was known
as _________________________. In that region, rain does fall, so people could plant in the
_____________________________ and then harvest in the _______________________.
-The Nile ran for about ___________ miles through ancient Egypt, from the first cataract
at _________________ to the Mediterranean Sea. On its way, it passes through a narrow
region called ________________________________. This fertile strip had an average width of
around _________________ miles on each side of the river.
-In the north, the Nile spread out to form a _______________________________________ area
called Lower Egypt.
-At the end of the Nile in the north, the river split into several streams that flowed
into the Mediterranean Sea. These streams formed an area called a ________________.
-A delta is a _________________________________ of a river. A delta is generally shaped like a
__________________________ and is named for the Greek letter delta which looks like this
three- sided geometric shape.
-Every spring, far away in the highlands of _________________________, waters begin to
rush downstream. As they flowed, they brought a rich, fertile sediment called
_____________________________________.
-_____________________ is a fine soil found on river bottoms. By late summer, the Nile
spilled over its banks all the way to the delta. The floodwaters deposited a thick
layer of _________________________, making the land ideal for farming.
-The ancient Egyptians called their land ______________________, the black land because
of the dark soil left by the Nile’s _______________________.
-Dry years were rare in Egypt, but they could cause ___________________________.
-Beyond the fertile river banks lay the “_______________________________,” the vast desert.
Most of the _________________________ lay to the west, and the part of the
__________________________ called the ________________________________________ lay to the east.
-The _____________________________________ shielded Egypt and Nubia from foreign attack.
That was a protection _____________________________________________ did not have.
-Over a period of _____________ years, the people of ancient Egypt and Nubia faced few
______________________________________.
-Yet they were not isolated. The Nile valley provided a path for ________________________
with ________________________________. The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea provided
access to ________________________________________.
III. The Growth of Communities and Trade Along the Nile
-Settled hunting and fishing communities may have appeared in Nubia around
____________________________.
-Unlike the communities of the Fertile Crescent that settled after taking up
agriculture, the Nubians formed settlements ___________________________________________
_______________________________________.
-Settled farming communities began to appear in both Egypt and Nubia sometime
around _________________________________.
-Egypt’s early farming communities settled in the _______________________________________
____________________________________________________________.
-The people built their homes of straw or of _______________________ made from a mix of
___________________________________________________________.
-Nubia had less _______________________________ along the Nile than Egypt. Because of the
shortage of ____________________________, Nubians added to their diet by _________________
in the Nile and hunting _______________________ and other ______________________.
-In Egypt, the Nile was used to _______________________________________. Ships could travel
_______________________ on the Nile because it was moving ________________________________.
But they could also sail ____________________________ with the help of the winds that
blew toward the __________________________________.
-Other trade links ran east across the desert to the ______________________________________
or to _________________________________.
-Caravans loaded with _________________, _________________, __________________, and fine
_________________ traveled the overland trade routes.
-Valuable goods such as _________________ from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean
Sea and _________________ from Nubia were sold in the bazaars of Egypt’s towns.
-Because of the _____________________________, people could not travel through Nubia by
___________________. Instead, the Nubians developed trade routes over _________________.
-They traded _______________________________, _________________________ from elephant tusks,
____________________________ feathers and eggs, __________________________________skins, and
throwsticks, a type of ___________________________________ that Africans used for hunting.
SECTION 2: THE RULERS OF EGYPT
I. Introduction
-____________________________ seized control of Egypt’s throne and made herself pharaoh.
-She ruled from ___________________ to ___________________ B.C.
II Egyptian Kingship
-Egypt’s fortune rested on the __________________________ of its ____________________________.
-Egypt had ____________ dynasties from _______________ B.C. until it was conquered in
______________ B.C.
-A dynasty is a series of _________________ from the same family or _______________ group.
-Historians group Egypt’s dynasties into ___________________ major time periods, called
________________________.
-The earliest major time period is called the _____________________________________________.
It lasted from _____________________ to ______________________ B.C.
-Next comes the ____________________________________________. It lasted from _______________
to ________________ B.C.
-The latest time period is called the ______________________________________. It lasted from
____________________ to _____________________ B.C.
-The gaps between the kingdoms were times of trouble—____________________,
_________________________, or _________________________________________________.
-For most of ancient Egyptian history, rule was ______________________.
-According to legend, Egypt’s first dynasty began when a king named _________________
united _____________________ and ___________________________ around ___________________ B.C.
-________________________ built a city named __________________________ near the present day
city of _______________________. From _______________________, he ruled over the two lands,
the name the ancient Egyptians gave to _________________________________________________.
-Some historians believe that ____________________________ and ________________________ may
have been the same man.
-The ______________________ had absolute ________________________ over their people.
-Ancient Egyptians believed that their pharaohs were the earthly forms of
_____________________________, the _________________________ god.
-Over time, pharaohs came to be connected with other gods, including the ___________
god ________________________.
-In this way, the pharaohs were ________________________________________.
-It was the pharaoh, Egyptians believed, who provided his people with the Nile’s
yearly ______________________________ and the ____________________________ that followed.
IV. The Three Kingdoms
The Old Kingdom
-The Old Kingdom was noted for its ______________________________________system of
______________________________.
-The Old Kingdom pharaohs kept the __________________ and traded with _______________.
-They sent merchants to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean to find ______________.
The ____________________ was used to make _____________________, _____________________, and
________________________________.
-Toward the end of the Old Kingdom, ________________________________ in the provinces
began to challenge the _______________________ of the pharaohs’ __________________________.
Egypt’s __________________ crumbled, and the dynasties grew ____________________.
-During the Old Kingdom, builders began the _____________________________________________
(2589 B.C.) and completed the _______________________________________________ (2533 B.C.).
-Dynasties _____________________ ruled during the _______________________________.
The Middle Kingdom
-The early rulers of the Middle Kingdom restored _________________ and _________________
the country.
-Pharaohs spent the nation’s wealth on ____________________________________ instead of on
__________________. They constructed __________________________ and ________________________
projects and Egypt grew _________________________.
-Weaker and ___________________________________ rulers followed and, in time, they lost
control of the __________________________ to ________________________________________________.
-During the ____________________ Kingdom, Egypt expanded into __________________________
________________________ and _______________________________ and ____________ flourished.
-Dynasty _______________ ruled during the _______________________ Kingdom.
The New Kingdom
-Egyptian princes drove out the foreigner invaders in __________________ B.C.
-The first pharaohs of the new kingdom wanted to build an _________________________.
They created huge armies of __________________ soldiers, mounted __________________,
and ______________________________. _______________________________ and
_____________________________________ made the Egyptians nearly unbeatable.
-Dynasties ____________ - _______________ ruled during the New _____________________.
-Queen ________________________________ ruled from _____________-______________ B.C.
-____________________________ III ruled from ______________-______________ B.C.
-The Egyptian empire expands into ___________________.
-King ____________________________________ was an Egyptian ruler who died at about age
18. His tomb was discovered in ______________________.
IV. Rule During the New Kingdom
-In _____________________ B.C., a child named ___________________________ III began his reign.
Because of his ________________________, his stepmother ______________________________ was
appointed ______________________.
-Not content to be ______________________, ______________________________________ had herself
proclaimed pharaoh. She ruled for about ________________ years.
-___________________________________ was a bold leader who is known for creating a time
of great _________________________ and _______________________ success.
-She encouraged trade with faraway places, sending a famous _________________________
to the land of __________________, on the east coast of _____________________.
-When __________________________ grew up, _______________________________________ refused to
yield the ______________________________ to him.
-After her death, ___________________________ became pharaoh and destroyed all her
_________________________________.
-_____________________________ III became one of the greatest pharaohs of the _____________
Kingdom.
-He led his army in wars against ____________________ and ___________________________.
-His troops advanced as far east as the _____________________________________ River and
south into _____________________________________.
-___________________ was also an educated man who loved to study ______________________.
-Toward the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt ______________________. Civil war left Egypt
_________________________ and poorly _______________________________.
-In _____________ B.C., long after the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt fell to the famous
conqueror _________________________________________________ of ______________________________.
-The _____________________________________ ruled Egypt for about _______________ years.
-In ________ B.C., ____________________________________________________ VII became the last
__________________________________ to rule Egypt. She shared the throne with members
of her family until Egypt was conquered by the ______________________ in ___________B.C.
-Egypt would not govern itself again for ___________________ years.
SECTION 3: EGYPTIAN RELIGION
I. Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
-__________________________________ was an important part of daily life in Egypt.
-The Egyptians believed that their gods and goddesses controlled the workings of
________________________.
-Egyptian towns had their own _______________ and ___________________________ with their
own _____________________________.
-__________________________ was the son of _______________ and _________________________ and
the _________________ god and the god of kingship.
-Osiris was the god of the ________________________ and the ____________________.
-__________________ was the wife of Osiris and goddess of __________________________.
-Thoth was the god of __________________________ and _________________________.
-____________________________________ was the chief god of the Egyptians. He protected the
rich and poor alike. The Egyptians believed that _____________________________ was born
each morning in the ________________ with the ________________. Each evening he _________
in the __________________ with the setting sun. That is why the ___________________area to
the ________________ was believed to be the home of the ______________. He is known as
the ____________________ god and god of ______________________.
-The Egyptians believed the spirits of the _____________________ made their way to the
afterlife in heavenly __________________________. If they pleased the gods in this world,
they joined ______________________ and lived a life of _________________ and ________________.
They spent their days ______________________, _____________________, and ____________________
With friends and family members who had died. Because the _________________________
of the dead could not survive without ___________________, __________________________, and
other items from this life, their possessions were __________________________ with them.
-During the ____________ Kingdom, the ____________________________ was thought to be only
for kings and their associates. But beginning with the __________________________________
Kingdom, people of all classes looked forward to an __________________________________.
-Egypt’s climate dried out a person’s remains, creating a ________________.
-According to Egyptians’ religious beliefs, the _____________________ would leave the
________________________, but return to it to receive _____________________ offerings.
-By the time of the ____________________ Dynasty, the Egyptians had begun to practice
_________________________________ .
-_________________________________ was expensive and took two or three __________________.
Workers carefully removed the _____________________. The body was then filled with a
natural ___________________ and stored for about ___________________ days. During that
time, it completely dried out. Once dry, the body was ______________________________ and
___________________ in ____________________. It was then wrapped in _____________ bandages.
-Pharaohs had three or four __________________. The innermost ______________________ was
usually shaped like a ___________________________________________, with the dead person’s
_________________ painted on the cover.
II. The Pharaohs’ Tombs
-The planning for a pharaoh’s _______________ began soon after he was __________________.
-The earliest tombs were made of ____________________________.
-The pharaohs of the ________________________Dynasty built the largest and most famous
tombs. These were the _____________________________.
-Most of the _______________________ were built during the Old Kingdom.
-The largest is called the ___________________________________________, built for Khufu in the
ancient city of __________________________.
-The Great Pyramid is made up of more than _______________________________ stones. The
average weight of each stone is ________________________ pounds.
-To get the blocks of stone into place, workers used ___________________________, wooden
___________________________, and __________________________. They dragged and pushed the
huge blocks up ___________________ of ______________________ to the level on which they
were working.
SECTION 4: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CULTURE
I. Lives of the Egyptians
-Most of what we know about the everyday life of the Egyptians is based on
_______________________________________ that cover the walls of tombs and temples.
-Egyptian _____________________ and ______________________ show _______________________ and
ordinary __________________________ involved in all aspects of life.
-Egyptian society itself resembled a ___________________________. At the very top stood
the _______________________________.
-Beneath him was a small ________________________________________. This group included
___________________, members of the __________________________, and ____________________
who held the large estates.
-The next level was the ______________________________________, made up of _________________
and skilled _______________________.
-At the base of the ________________________ was by far the largest ________________________,
the ______________________. Mostly, the ___________________________ did farm labor, but they
also built _______________________ and _________________________.
-A person could rise to a ______________________________.
-Prisoners captured in war were made __________________. _____________________ formed a
separate class. ____________________ had rights. They could own personal _______________,
inherit _________________ from their masters, and even be set __________________.
-Although peasants could own ____________________________, most worked the land of
_________________________ people. During the ____________________ season, the peasants
worked on ___________________, ____________________, and other __________________________.
As soon as the water left the land, they had to _____________________________ the fields.
-Egyptian woman were looked upon as living models of _____________________________,
the wife of the god________________________. They had most of the rights that ____________
had. They could own ____________________, run _______________________, and enter into
legal ______________________. For the most part, women traveled about __________________.
-Noble women held a special position in Egyptian society. Sometimes they were in
charge of ______________________ and religious ____________________. Some women acted as
______________________ until the _______________________ was old enough to rule on his own.
II. Writing in Ancient Egypt
-The _______________________ and ______________________ left by the ancient Egyptians allow
us to learn more about their culture. From these records, we know they possessed
an amazing amount of knowledge.
-In ancient Egypt, as in ______________________, ideas were written down in picture-like
symbols called _________________________________. In this script, some pictures stand for
______________________ or _________________________.
-The Egyptians began to use _______________________________ because they needed a way
to keep track of the kingdom’s growing ___________________________.
-At first, the Egyptians wrote on _____________________ and ___________________, as the
_______________________ did. But they needed a more convenient writing surface. They found it in _________________________, an early form of paper made from a _______________ found in the ________________________ areas of the Nile delta.
-To make the paper, the _________________________ stalks of the plant were cut into
narrow _________________________. The ____________________ were cut to the same length
and placed _____________ by ______________ in one layer. Another layer of strips was
placed ________________________ on top to form a sheet. Papyrus makers ________________
the sheet, pressed it ________________, and ________________ it in the sun. _________________
from the plant glued the strips together. _____________________ side by side, the sheets
formed a long strip that could be ________________________ up.
-The meaning of ancient Egypt’s ____________________________ writing was lost after the
A.D. __________________.
-It wasn’t until ________________________ that an important find took place. A soldier
digging a fort near the Nile found a large _________________________ with three different
types of writing on it. The upper part showed ______________________________________, the
middle part showed a later Egyptian script called _________________________________, and
the lower part showed ______________________________ letters. The stone was named the
____________________________________ because it was found near ___________________________, a
city in the Nile delta near the Mediterranean Sea.
-The three texts on the stone held the same _________________________________. Many
scholars tried to use the _______________________ letters on the ____________________________
to figure out the meaning of the ________________________________________.
-Finally in the __________________________, a young French scholar named _________________
_________________________________________________ eventually figured it out.
III. Science and Medicine
-Among the people of the ancient world, Egypt was known as a land of great
__________________________________.
-Egyptian _________________________________ were able to predict that the Nile appeared
to rise rapidly about the time they could see _________________, ________________________,
in the sky shortly before ____________________. They worked out that the average time
between the appearances of the star was ________________________. This became the
length of their ____________________________.
-The Egyptians knew how to ______________, ________________, ________________, and
__________________. They could also use simple _________________________.
-Mathematics helped Egyptians measure ________________ so that it could be cut to the
proper size to build ________________________. They used ___________________________ to
measure area so they could figure out the amount of taxes for a plot of _____________.
-Religion and medicine were closely related in ancient Egypt. Doctors were specially
trained __________________________ who used ___________________________ practices and
their knowledge of __________________________ to try to heal the sick. They could
perform _____________________, set broken ___________________, and heal minor
___________________.
-The Egyptians also used _______________________ remedies to help ease everyday
illnesses such as ________________________ and ______________________________.
-They wrote much of their medical knowledge down on ______________________________
and, centuries later, the __________________ and _____________________ used these records.
SECTION 5: THE CULTURE OF NUBIA
I. Nubia and Egypt
-The region of Nubia was located ___________________ of ancient Egypt, beyond the first
__________________________ of the Nile River.
-For most of their long history, Nubia and Egypt were _______________________,
_____________________ neighbors.
-Egypt valued Nubia for its ___________________________________ such as ___________________,
______________________, and ____________________________.
-Because of its location, Nubia became a bridge for goods traveling between
_____________________________________ and ____________________________.
-Powerful kingdoms rose in ________________________________________, the region between
the _______________________ and _______________________ Nile cataracts. These kingdoms
rivaled Egypt for control of land.
-The most powerful of these kingdoms were in the cities of ____________________,
_________________________, and ______________________. These kingdoms were ruled by
____________________________________, people who lived in southern Nubia.
II. The Kerma Culture
-The _____________________________ came to power at a time when Egypt was weakening.
By about _________________B.C., the ______________________________ kingdom had expanded
from the city of ________________________ into parts of southern Egypt.
-These Nubians are known as the ___________________________ culture, and their kingdom
lasted from about ____________________ to _____________________ B.C.
-_______________________________ gained wealth and power by controlling the trade
between ____________________________________ and ______________________.
-Like the Egyptians, the people of _______________ devoted a great deal of energy and
resources to _____________________________. They buried their ___________________________ in
____________________________ of earth as large as football fields. Inside their ______________,
the kings’ bodies rested on top of gold-covered beds surrounded by _________________,
____________________, and ___________________.
-Around the _________________________ B.C., Egypt began to recover its strength and to
reclaim control of the area. Pharaoh ______________________ I sent his armies into Nubia.
After a war that lasted about ______________ years, the Egyptians took control of Nubia
as far south as the fourth cataract. Egypt ruled Nubia for about the next ______ years.
-During this period, the Nubians adopted many Egyptian ways and the two
____________________________ became mixed.
III. Napata and Meroe
-South of __________________ lay the Nubian cities of ___________________ and _______________,
in the ancient land called _________________. After centuries of Egyptian rule, the
___________________________ rose again to power. Their kingdom was centered in the
Nubian city of _______________________ and then later in _____________________.
-In the late ____________________ B.C., Egypt was once again weak and ____________________.
From their capital in _________________________, the Kushites expanded their power into
Egypt.
-The _______________________kings gradually took control of more of Egypt. They moved
their capital city first to _____________________ and then to _______________________. By the
time ______________________ became pharaoh, the Nubians controlled all of Egypt.
-The pharaohs of Egypt’s Twenty-fifth dynasty were _______________________.
-The Napatan kings admired ___________________________________ and they brought back
many old Egyptian ways and preserved them.
-The rule of the _________________________ kings did not last long. About _________________
B.C., they were forced back into Nubia. They retreated to Napata and then gradually
moved their capital south to _____________________. The Nubians never again
controlled _____________________________________ land.
-After moving south of Egypt’s reach, the Nubians founded a royal court in the
ancient city of _________________________.
-________________________________ became the center of an empire that included much of
Nubia and stretched into _________________________________________________.
-The desert east of ____________________ held large deposits of _____________________________
which the Nubians used to make _____________________ and _______________________.
-____________________________________ allowed them to produce generous supplies of food,
and ________________________________ allowed them to control trade routes that ran all
the way to the ____________________.
-______________________________ grew rich from this trade.
-Today, Meroe remains largely a mystery. The Nubians of Meroe created their own
system of ____________________________________________, but scholars have been unable to
fully understand these _________________________________.
-Meroe began to weaken in the A.D. ___________________________ and it fell to the African
kingdom of ______________________________ in the next century.
-Features of Nubian culture have lasted for _________________ years. To this day, Nubian
styles of _______________, _______________, _______________, braided ________________, and
_______________ survive among people of the modern-day African country of __________.
-Women held very __________________________in Nubian society. Most often, the children
of the ________________________________________ would be next in line for the _______________.
Compared to Egypt, Nubia had many more women as _______________________.