Ancient Egypt An Alphabet Adventure

1
Ancient EgyptAn Alphabet Adventure

• By
• Mrs. Harding-Woodhulls
• Third Graders

2
A is for afterlife

• The ancient Egyptians believed that after you
  died you had another life. Along your journey to
  the underworld you would face many dangers.
  Osiris, ruler of the dead, would meet you and
  your heart would be weighed against a feather to
  see if you had been a good person. If you were
  good you would live forever in the Field of
  Reeds. They believed you needed a body for the
  spirit to live on, so that is why they made
  mummies.

3
B is for Book of the Dead

• The book of the dead wasnt really a book. It
  was a collection of spells that was supposed to
  help the dead person in the next dimension. The
  spells were supposed to protect the spirit from
  dangers in their after life.

4
C is for canopic jar.

• Canopic jars held the four organs that were
  removed before a body was mummified. The
  stomach, lungs, liver and intestines were each
  watched over by a certain god.

5
C is also for Cleopatra

• Cleopatra was one of the last rulers of Egypt
  before it was taken over by Rome. She was a
  beautiful and powerful pharaoh.

6
More about Cleopatra

• Cleopatra ruled with her father Ptolmey until he
  died and then she became a very strong ruler.
  After she sided with Marc Antony against the
  powerful Roman army and lost a war she is
  believed to have killed herself by letting
  poisonous snakes bite her.

7
D is for desert.

• Most of Egypt is a dry, hot, and sandy desert.
  Because it is difficult to cross, the desert
  protected the Egyptians from other armies. The
  hot dry climate preserved the mummies and many
  artifacts for centuries. Studying those help
  archeologists learn about the ancient Egyptians.

8
E is for Egypt.

• Egypt is a country now and it has been a country
  over thousands of years. At one time Egypt was
  split into upper and lower kingdoms, but it was
  combined into one larger country. The pharaoh's
  double crown showed he ruled both Upper and lower
  Egypt.

9
F is for farming.

• Farming was very important to the Egyptians.
  They grew wheat for bread, barley for beer,
  vegetables and some fruits.

10
Farming

• The Egyptians grew flax to make linen that was
  used for clothes. They thought that even in the
  after life there would be farm work to do. The
  annual floods brought good soil to their fields.

11
G is for gods and goddesses.

• The ancient Egyptians believed in thousands of
  different gods. Some of the more popular gods
  included Horus, Isis, Osiris, Nepthys, Hathor,
  Bastet, Anubis Aten and Thoth.

12
H is for Hieroglyphics.

• Hieroglyphics were a picture kind of writing.
  There was even a picture called the cows belly!
  Their writing was different than ours in many
  ways.

13
I is for inundation.

• The inundation was when the Nile River flooded.
  Flooding would last about three months of the
  year. The farmers needed the flood because it
  brought good soil for their crops.

14
J is for jewelry.

• The Egyptians loved jewelry. They used gold,
  precious stones and copper and believed that
  certain charms could protect them. Many pieces
  had scarab beetles on them because it was sacred
  to them.

15
K is for Ka.

• The Ka was the vital energy of life. The Ka
  needed food and drink that was provided by
  offerings of food or pictures of food placed in
  the tomb. For a person to live forever, their Ka
  had to be reunited in the tomb with their mummy.

16
L is for limestone.

• Limestone was used as a building material. The
  pyramids are made of limestone. Each block could
  weigh up to two tons-that is 4000 pounds!

17
M is for mummy.

• Egyptians preserved the bodies of powerful or
  wealthy people because they believed the body was
  needed in the afterlife. It took about two
  months to mummify a body which was then wrapped
  in linen and placed in a fancy casket called a
  sarcophagus.

18
M is also for mastaba.

• At first graves were just holes in the ground.
  Then later they were mounds of earth. That
  changed into low mud brick boxes and then a sort
  of step structure called a mastaba. That was the
  beginning of the idea for pyramids.

19
N is for the Nile River.

• The Nile is the longest river in the world. It
  was very important to the Ancient Egyptians
  because it provided water, farm land and
  irrigation for crops and was their freeway. It
  was easier to float on water than walk through
  sand.

20
More about the Nile River

• The valley formed by the Nile is green against
  the brown dunes of the desert. Farmland is
  precious and is only found in a narrow band along
  the river.

21
O is for obelisk.

• Obleisks are tall stone monuments that were
  originally connected to sun worship. They were
  often decorated with carvings of animals that are
  active and happy at sunrise.

22
P is for pyramid.

• The great pyramid at Giza is the largest stone
  building in the world. It was constructed about
  2600 b.c. It has over two million blocks of
  limestone and granite. The great pyramid is as
  tall as a 40 story building. Pyramids were tombs
  of pharaohs and were meant to last forever.

23
Other pyramid points to ponder

• The Great pyramid took almost 80 years to build.
• The first pyramid was built by King Zoser about
  2750 b.c.

24
P is for pharoah.

• The pharaoh was absolute ruler and was thought to
  be a god-his word was law. He was the law giver,
  administrator and priest. He also needed to be a
  skilled warrior. His job was to protect his
  people against their enemies and the defend the
  kingdom.

25
P is for papyrus.

• Papyrus was a large dense reed that grew along
  the Nile river. It was used to make baskets.
  Its most important use was to be flattened and
  mashed together to form the worlds first paper.

26
Q is for Queen Nefertiti.

• Nefertiti was a powerful queen who was married to
  King Tuts dad. One of her daughters married
  King Tut. She was known to be very beautiful.

27
Q is also for quarry.

• Quarries were where rock was cut from the ground.
  The ancient Egyptians quarried limestone along
  the Nile River, and would float it on barges to
  building sites. It was hard work.

28
R is for Rosetta Stone.

• The Rosetta stone was the key to figuring out how
  to read hieroglyphics. The stone had writing on
  it in Greek that people could read, and also in
  hieroglyphics. It was found in 1799 but it took
  until 1822 for a Frenchman to figure it out.

29
R is also for reed boat.

• Papyrus reeds that grew along the Nile were
  plentiful and they floated. They were, and still
  are today, used to build boats.

30
S is for shaduf.

• A shaduf is a device that the Egyptians built and
  used to water their crops. It had a weight and a
  bucket on either end of a pole. The bucket would
  be lowered down to the water and lifted up with
  the help of the weight.

31
Shadufs are still in use today.
32
S is also for Sphinx

• The sphinx was built during the Pharaoh Khafras
  reign. It has the head of a human and the body
  of a lion. It is 240 feet long and 66 feet high.
  The Great Sphinx was meant to protect the
  pyramids at Giza and scare people away.

33
Can you solve the riddle of the Sphinx?

• There is a legend that says the Sphinx would ask
  travelers this riddle What goes on four legs in
  the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three
  legs in the evening? A correct answer would let
  the traveler pass unharmed.

34
Answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx

• The answer is a man. As a baby he would crawl,
  then he would walk upright, and in old age he
  would use a cane. The morning, noon and night
  mentioned in the riddle refers to the stages of
  life.

35
T is for Tutankhamen's Tomb.

• King Tutankhamen is better known as King Tut. He
  is thought to have been about 19 years old when
  he died. We know quite a bit about him because
  his tomb was one of the few that has been found
  that wasnt raided for all the treasures inside.

36
U is for underworld.

• The underworld was part of the afterlife, known
  as the duat, where the soul would wander. The
  Egyptians thought that you got to the underworld
  by boat. Every night when the sun set, it was
  thought to descend into the underworld.

37
V is for Valley of the Kings.

• The Valley of the Kings is a desolate area close
  to the Nile River, where archeologists have found
  many of the pharaohs tombs. Almost all had been
  raided to steal their treasures. People from all
  over the world visit this area today.

38
W is for wigs.

• The Egyptians, both men and women, often shaved
  their heads. It was cooler and cut down on head
  lice. They wore elaborate wigs made of wool or
  hemp which were often braided and decorated. For
  special events they would wear a cone of perfumed
  beeswax on their head. This would melt over the
  wig, releasing a sweet smell, during the
  evening.

39
X is for x-ray

• Xrays, cat scans and MRIs let us look inside a
  mummy without having to unwrap them or damage the
  artifacts, like the sarcophagus. Sometimes it
  can also help find out the cause of death.

40
Using technology today, this mummy still has
stories to tell us about ancient Egypt.
41
Y is for year.

• The Egyptians were the first group of people to
  use a calendar with 365 days. A week was ten
  days long. There were 12 months, each with three
  weeks. That left 5 extra days that were
  celebrated as birthdays of five of their powerful
  gods.

42
Z is for zither.

• A zither is a stringed musical instrument. The
  strings stretched over a flat box and were
  plucked with the fingers. The Ancient Egyptians
  loved music and dancing and included pictures of
  both in much of their art.

43
Thanks for watching!

• We hope you liked our slide show. It was
  interesting to learn so much about ancient Egypt.
  We liked learning about the pyramids. We hope
  this answered some of your questions about that
  amazing time.
• Created by Mrs. HWs Third Graders
• Daniel, Emily, Lindsay, Madelyn,
• Autumn, Rileigh,
  Sarah,
• Alanah and Jade.