Empire of Ancient Egypt

Empire of Ancient Egypt

By: Wendy Christensen

EGYPT, THE WORLD’S FIRST SUPERPOWER, WAS BORN ABOUT 5000 B.C.E. in the valley of the Nile River in northeastern Africa. Tucked into a long, narrow gorge threaded by the river and bounded by steep cliffs, Egypt enjoyed a predictable, mostly pleasant climate and natural barriers against invasion. To the west lay the Sahara Desert, to the east a harsh, mountainous wasteland. To the south, a series of six great rapids (called cataracts) obstructed the river. To the north was the “Great Green:” the Mediterranean Sea. An Egyptian called his homeland Kemet. His world was divided into lowland kemet (“black land”), the narrow ribbon of rich, black earth on the valley floor, and highland deshret (“red land”), the pale, reddish sand of the forbidding desert plateaus. Foreigners were “highlanders.” “Going up” meant leaving the valley; “descending” was returning home. [download]

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