GIFTS OF THE NILE & AGRICULTURE
The annual flooding of the Nile deposited this rich, dark material that made the riverbanks fertile for farming.
Answer: What is silt (or black soil / black land)?
Around 3100 B.C., this king created the first Egyptian dynasty by uniting Upper and Lower Egypt into a single nation.
Answer: Who is Narmer (or Menes)?
This 70-day drying and wrapping process was used to prevent deceased bodies from decaying so they could survive in eternity.
Answer: What is embalming (or mummification)?
Before pyramids were built, early Egyptian kings were buried in underground tombs covered by these flat, rectangular mud-brick structures.
Answer: What are mastabas?
Ancient Egyptians created light, rollable writing scrolls by pressing together stems from this freshwater reed.
Answer: What is papyrus?
This hand-operated lever system with a bucket and counterweight was used by Egyptian farmers to lift water from canals onto elevated fields.
Answer: What is a shadoof?
This Fourth Dynasty pharaoh commissioned the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest stone pyramid ever built.
Answer: Who is Khufu?
In the Hall of Judgment, the jackal-headed god Anubis weighed the deceased person's heart against this sacred object representing truth and justice.
Answer: What is the Feather of Ma'at?
Built around 2630 B.C. for King Djoser at Saqqara, this landmark was the world's earliest known large stone structure.
Answer: What is the Step Pyramid?
Highly trained professionals in Egyptian society who spent years mastering over 6,000 picture symbols to keep official records and tax accounts.
Answer: Who are scribes?
Producing extra food beyond what a family needed for survival allowed society to develop specialized jobs and engage in trade.
Answer: What is an agricultural surplus?
Clue: Rather than focusing solely on conquest, this female pharaoh directed major trading expeditions to the African land of Punt to acquire incense and luxury goods.
Answer: Who is Hatshepsut?
Because prominent Old Kingdom pyramids were repeatedly plundered by grave robbers, New Kingdom pharaohs hid their tombs in the cliffs of this desert canyon.
Answer: What is the Valley of the Kings?
These tall, four-sided stone pillars pointed like a pyramid at the top were carved with hieroglyphs to commemorate a ruler's great deeds.
Answer: What are obelisks?
Egyptian surveyors developed this branch of mathematics using knotted ropes to restore property lines after annual Nile floods washed them away.
Answer: What is geometry?
During the Middle Kingdom, pharaohs drained the wetlands of this region southwest of Saqqara, reclaiming approximately 150,000 acres of fertile farmland.
Answer: What is the Faiyum?
After fighting the Hittites in northern Syria, this warrior pharaoh negotiated the first known written peace treaty in world history.
Answer: Who is Ramses II (Ramses the Great)?
This pharaoh caused a religious revolution by outlawing Egypt's traditional gods and enforcing the sole worship of the sun disk deity, Aton.
Answer: Who is Akhenaten (Akhenaton)?
Ramses II projected his divine power by carving four seated, 66-foot colossal statues of himself directly into the cliffside of this famous southern temple.
Answer: What is Abu Simbel?
The ancient Egyptian sacred collection of magic spells, prayers, and formulas designed to protect and guide a deceased person's soul through the dangerous trials of the afterlife.
Answer: What is the Book of the Dead?
The appearance of this bright celestial body signaled to Egyptian priests that the annual inundation of the Nile was about to begin, helping form their 365-day calendar.
Answer: What is the star Sirius?
In the 700s B.C., this ruler of Kush marched northward along the Nile to capture Memphis and unite Egypt and Kush under Kushite control.
Answer: Who is King Piye?
When this young boy-king took the throne around 1333 B.C., he renounced the religious changes of his predecessor and reopened the traditional polytheistic temples.
Answer: Who is Tutankhamen (King Tut)?
Twelfth Dynasty Middle Kingdom pharaohs built these massive stone and mud-brick structures past the second cataract to protect military troops and control Nubia's gold.
Answer: What are border fortresses?
The Latin term for the deliberate political act ordered by Thutmose III to deface monuments, chisel away names, and erase a prior ruler from historical memory.
Answer: What is Damnatio Memoriae (historical erasure)?