The king of Egypt was called the “pharaoh”, a word that originally meant “great house”, or “palace”, but came to explain the person who lived there. He was thought to be a living god and wore a ritual false beard as an emblem of royalty. He also wore a red crown and a white crown symbolizing the union of Administrative district (the river valley) with territorial division (the Nile delta).

Famous Pharaohs

Khufu – Ordered the development of the Great Pyramid

Hatshepsut –A Powerful queen who wore the pharaoh’s false beard and ruled Egypt for 20 years

Akshenaten - Banished the traditional Gods and founded his own religion

Tutankhamun – In 1922, the tomb of this boy-pharaoh was found with all its magnificent burial goods intact

Ramesses II – Reigned over Egypt for 67 years and built more monuments and statues than the other pharaohs

Cleopatra VII – One among the foremost famous women in history, who killed herself when their empire fell to the Romans.

Egyptian gods

The Egyptians worshipped around 2,000 different gods and goddess, some of the prominent ones were -

Ra – kingship was represented by Ra the Sun god

Amun – Creator god, related to fertility

Mut – wife of Amun who is the Goddess of war

Anubis – God of the dead and mummification whose head seems like the top of jackal

Sobek – Crocodile god and ruler of the Nile

Osiris – God of the dead and thus the afterlife

Isis – Wife of Osiris who is the goddess of nature and fertility

Horus – God of the sky, light, and life, whose head seems like falcon.

Seth – God of deserts, storms, chaos, and evil

Thoth – God of wisdom and writing

Steps involved in the process of Mummification

1. Clean the body with water as soon as possible after death.

2. Remove the brain, it is useless, so you’ll be able to yank it out through the nostrils with the help of a hook and throw it away.

3. Remove the interior organs and place them inside special containers called canopic jars, Leave the heart because it contains the soul.

4. Fill the body cavity with a salty mineral called natron to soak up moisture. Cover the body with the disinfectant called natron and leave it to dry for 40 days.

5. Rub the skin with oils, stuff sawdust inside the body to maintain its shape and put balls of linen into the eye socket of the dead

6. Wrap the body in linen bandages, placing amulets (magic charms) between layers to guard the mummy on its journey to the afterlife.

The Great Pyramid

The pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs during the period referred to as the old kingdom, 4,500 years ago.

The great pyramid is the largest stone structure on Earth, it took 20 years to build a pyramid, the typical weight of every block employed in the development of the Great Pyramid weighed 2.5 tonnes, quite 2,300,000 blocks were used during the development of pyramid, the overall weight of the pyramid is 6,500,000 tonnes, which was built by 4,000 workers.

Timeline of Kingdoms & Dynasties

Early Dynastic Period

C 3100 – 2686 BCE 1^st- 2^nd dynasties

Old Kingdom

C 2686 – 2181 BCE 3^rd-6^th dynasties

First Intermediate Period

C 2181 – 2055 BCE 7^th-11^th dynasties

Middle Kingdom

C 2055 – 1650 BCE 11^th-14^th dynasties

Second Intermediate Period

C 1650 – 1550 BCE 15^th-17^th dynasties

New Kingdom