A | B |
silt | layer of rich soil from river water |
cataract | a waterfall |
delta | triangular area of marshlands found at the mouth of a river |
dynasty | ruling family |
pharaoh | title of an Egyptian leader that literally means great house |
vizier | chief minister to the pharaoh who supervised the business of government |
papyrus | a plant that grows along the Nile that Egyptians used to make a paper like writing material |
decipher | decode |
Ramses II | the last powerful Egyptian pharaoh during the New Kingdom who extended Egypt to its greatest size He made a truce with the Hittites and built many large public works |
Amon Re | cheif sun god of the Egyptians |
Osiris | Egyptian god who ruled the underworld and was god of the Nile |
Isis | Egyptian goddess & wife of Osiris she is seen as patron to women |
Great Pyramids of Giza | tombs of the pharaohs built during the Old Kingdom |
mummification | the preservation of the human body at death so that an individual could use their body in the afterlife |
hieroglyphics | a form of picture writing used by the Egyptians |
demotic | a simpler form of Egyptian writing for everyday use |
Menes | first Egyptian king to unite Upper and Lower Egypt |
Hyksos | foreign invaders of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom they drove horse drawn war chariots |
Hatshepsut | a powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom who encouraged trade and peace during her reign |
Akhenaton | a powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom who favored the sun god Aton over Amon Re |
Rosetta Stone | discovered in the 1800s by Jean Champollion this object had the same message carved in three different forms of script |
red land | sun-baked desert land |
black land | fertile land along the Nile |
Thutmose III | Hatshepsut's stepson who took the throne after her reign and extended Egypt's borders to it's greatest extent at that time |
Nefertiti | wife of Akenaton who shared power during his reign |
Tale of Sinuhe | folk tale of the wanderings of an Egyptian official forced to flee into what is today Syria |
Valley of the Kings | desert area where many New Kingdom pharaoh's pyramids were built |
ideogram | written character symbolizing the idea of a thing without indicating sounds used to say it |
Jean Campollion | French scholar who deciphered the Rosetta stone |
Howard Carter | British archaeologist who uncovered King Tutenkhamen's tomb |
Tutankhamen | minor king of Egypt whose tomb was discovered intact by Howard Carter |
Nubia | kingdom to the south of Egypt that was conquered by Egypt during the New Kingdom and later conquered Egypt |
Old Kingdom | time period of Egyptian history from 2575 to 2130 BC a period of great power during which the pyramids of Giza were built |
Middle Kingdom | time period Egyptian history from 1938-1630 BC a period of turbulence and corruption in which Egypt expanded trade and drained delta land for more farmland |
New Kingdom | time period of Egyptian history from 1539 to 1037 BC a period of powerful pharaohs who extended Egypts size and power to its greatest extent |