The Ancient Egyptians

The Gift of the Nile

Picture a vast, scorching desert where almost nothing grows. Now picture a single broad river winding through it like a green ribbon, its banks bursting with crops, birds and people. This was ancient Egypt, one of the greatest civilisations the world has ever known. And it would never have existed without one thing: the River Nile.

Egypt sits in the north-east corner of Africa, surrounded by hot, dry desert. Rain almost never falls there. Yet for thousands of years, millions of people lived, farmed and built wonders in this harsh land. How? The answer flows right through the middle of it. The Nile is the longest river in the world, and an ancient writer once called Egypt "the gift of the Nile". In this book, you will discover how this river shaped a civilisation, and explore the pharaohs, pyramids, gods, mummies and writing that still amaze us thousands of years later.

How the Nile Made Egypt

Every year, like clockwork, the River Nile flooded. Heavy rains far to the south made the river swell and overflow its banks across the land. When the floodwaters drew back, they left behind a layer of dark, rich mud full of goodness for plants. The Egyptians called this dark soil the "Black Land", and it was perfect for farming.

This yearly flood was the heartbeat of Egyptian life. Farmers learned exactly when it would come and planted their crops to match it. They grew wheat and barley to make bread and beer, and vegetables, fruits and flax (a plant used to make linen cloth). The river also gave them fish to eat, reeds to make papyrus, water to drink, and a watery highway for boats to carry people and goods up and down the land.

So important was the flood that the Egyptians built clever systems of channels and ditches, called irrigation, to spread the precious water further across their fields. The Nile gave them so much food that not everyone had to farm. Some people could become builders, priests, soldiers, craftworkers and scribes instead. A great civilisation could grow only because the river fed it.

Pharaohs, the God-Kings

At the very top of Egyptian society stood the pharaoh, the all-powerful ruler of Egypt. The pharaoh was not seen as an ordinary king. The Egyptians believed he was a living god-king, a link between the people and their many gods. His word was law, and he was thought to be responsible for keeping order and making sure the Nile flooded and the crops grew.

Egypt was ruled by pharaohs for around 3,000 years, longer than almost any other system of rule in history. Some pharaohs became famous and are still remembered today. Tutankhamun became pharaoh as a boy and died young; his tomb, discovered in 1922, was packed with dazzling treasures, including a golden mask, which made him world-famous. Ramesses the Great ruled for a very long time and built enormous temples and statues of himself. Egypt even had powerful female rulers, such as Hatshepsut, who ruled as pharaoh and ordered grand buildings, and later Cleopatra, one of the last rulers of ancient Egypt.

Below the pharaoh came priests and nobles, then scribes and skilled craftworkers, then the soldiers and farmers who made up most of the population. Egyptian society was shaped a bit like a pyramid, with the pharaoh at the very top.

The Mighty Pyramids

When people think of ancient Egypt, they often picture the pyramids, those gigantic stone triangles rising from the desert. They are among the most famous buildings in the entire world, and they were built as grand tombs to hold the bodies and treasures of pharaohs after they died.

The most famous of all is the Great Pyramid of Giza, built for the pharaoh Khufu around 4,500 years ago. It is made of more than two million blocks of stone, some weighing as much as several cars, stacked into a perfect pyramid taller than a forty-storey building. For thousands of years, it was the tallest structure made by human hands anywhere on Earth. It is the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.

How did the Egyptians build something so enormous without machines, engines or even iron tools? It remains one of history's great puzzles, but historians believe huge teams of skilled workers cut and dragged the massive stone blocks, probably using ramps, ropes, levers and sheer organised effort. These workers were not slaves, as people once thought, but paid labourers who were fed and housed. Building a pyramid took many years and thousands of people working together. The pyramids stand as a breathtaking reminder of what the ancient Egyptians could achieve.

Gods and the Afterlife

The ancient Egyptians believed in many gods and goddesses, who they thought controlled every part of the world, from the Sun and the river to love, war and death. Ra was the powerful sun god, who was thought to sail across the sky each day. Osiris was the god of the afterlife, Isis was a great goddess of magic and motherhood, and Anubis, shown with the head of a jackal, watched over the dead. The Egyptians built grand stone temples as homes for their gods, where priests carried out daily rituals.

Most importantly of all, the Egyptians believed strongly in a life after death. They thought that if a person was properly prepared and buried, they could live on forever in a wonderful afterlife. This belief shaped much of their civilisation, from the building of tombs to the treasures they buried with their dead. Pharaohs and wealthy Egyptians were buried with food, jewellery, furniture and other goods they believed they would need in the next life.

The Secrets of Mummies

Because the Egyptians believed the dead would live again, they thought it was vital to preserve the body. A preserved body is called a mummy, and making one was a careful and skilful process that took around seventy days.

First, the body was cleaned, and most of the inside organs were carefully removed and stored in special jars. The Egyptians believed the heart was needed in the afterlife, so it was usually left in place. Next, the body was covered and packed with a special salt called natron, which dried it out completely so it would not rot. Finally, the dried body was rubbed with oils and wrapped from head to toe in long strips of linen, sometimes with protective charms called amulets tucked between the layers. The wrapped mummy was then placed in a decorated coffin.

Thanks to this remarkable process, some Egyptian mummies have survived for thousands of years, and we can still study them today. Mummies teach archaeologists an enormous amount about how the Egyptians lived, what they ate, what illnesses they suffered, and what they believed about death.

Writing and Knowledge

The ancient Egyptians developed a beautiful and complex writing system made of pictures and symbols, called hieroglyphs. These appeared carved into temple walls and tombs, and they could stand for sounds, words or ideas. There were hundreds of different signs, so reading and writing was a difficult skill.

Most Egyptians could not read or write at all. Writing was the special job of the scribes, who trained for many years to learn the craft. Scribes kept records of taxes, harvests and laws, wrote letters and stories, and recorded the deeds of the pharaohs. It was a respected and powerful position, and a scribe could rise high in Egyptian society.

The Egyptians wrote on a paper-like material called papyrus, made by pressing together strips from the papyrus reed that grew along the Nile. For over a thousand years after ancient Egypt ended, nobody could read hieroglyphs, and their meaning was a complete mystery. The code was finally cracked in the 1800s with the help of the famous Rosetta Stone, which carried the same message in hieroglyphs and in Greek, allowing scholars to work out what the symbols meant at last.

Daily Life in Egypt

Not everyone in Egypt was a pharaoh or a priest. Most people were ordinary farmers and workers who lived simple lives along the Nile. Their houses were built from mud bricks, which kept them cool in the fierce heat. They wore light clothes made of linen, and both men and women wore make-up, partly to protect their skin and eyes from the sun.

Egyptians loved music, dancing and games. Children played with toys, and adults enjoyed a popular board game called senet. Families were important, and pets were kept and loved, especially cats, which the Egyptians treasured and even considered sacred. Food was based around bread and beer, with vegetables, fruit, fish and, for the wealthy, meat. For all their grand temples and tombs, much of Egyptian life was about farming the land, raising families and enjoying the gifts of the Nile.

The Legacy of Egypt

After about 3,000 years, the age of the pharaohs came to an end. Egypt was conquered by foreign powers, and its old ways slowly faded. But the achievements of the ancient Egyptians never truly disappeared.

Their ideas in mathematics, medicine and astronomy were studied and built upon by later peoples. They created a 365-day calendar that helped lead to the one we use today. Their breathtaking pyramids and temples still stand, drawing millions of visitors from around the world. Museums everywhere display their treasures, statues and mummies, and archaeologists are still uncovering new discoveries in the Egyptian sands.

Above all, ancient Egypt reminds us of what human beings can achieve when they work together, observe the world carefully, and dream big. From a strip of green beside a desert river, the Egyptians built one of the most dazzling civilisations in history.

What We Learned

We have journeyed back over 4,000 years to the banks of the River Nile.

We learned that the Nile's yearly flood made farming and life possible in the desert, feeding a great civilisation. We met the pharaohs, the god-kings who ruled Egypt for thousands of years, and marvelled at the enormous pyramids built as their tombs. We explored the Egyptians' belief in many gods and in life after death, which led them to make mummies to preserve the body. We discovered their picture-writing, hieroglyphs, recorded by trained scribes, and we glimpsed the daily lives of ordinary Egyptians along the river. Finally, we saw how the legacy of ancient Egypt still shapes our world today.

The pharaohs are long gone, but their wonders still stand beneath the desert sun, waiting to amaze us.

Want to keep exploring the ancient world? Discover how the Egyptians' picture-writing fits into the bigger story in The Story of Writing and the Alphabet, or marvel at more astonishing achievements in The Wonders of the Ancient World.