| Ahmose | Began the 18th Dynasty in 1539. He formed an army and finally drove the Hyksos from Egypt, pursuing them to Palestine and defeating them there as well. When he returned, he settled in and ruled for about 26 years. This was the beginning of the New Kingdom. He also started many building projects. |
| Amen | Sun god who was also known as Ra. |
| Amenhotep | Name of four
pharaohs during the 18th Dynasty. The most famous was
Amenhotep IV, who became Akhenaten, the famous reformer
pharaoh who married Nefertiti. Amenhotep I was the first
pharaoh to build his tomb separate from the temple.
Akhenaten, who renamed himself that to show that he was a
follower of Aten (the sun god), broke with traditional
religious practices and declared that the people should
worship Aten. Up to that time, Egyptian people had worshiped
several gods. Akhenaten said that they should worship only
one god, Aten. Akhenaten also moved the Egyptian capital
from Thebes to El-Amarna. |
| Aten | Sun god who
was not widely known in Egypt until Amenhotep IV became
Pharaoh, changed his name to Akhenaten, and declared that
Aten was the only god to worship. |
| Book of the Dead | Book filled
with stories and ideas for how to enjoy the afterlife.
Egyptian people believed in an afterlife, and this book was
written to help them get there and be ready when they
did. |
| Cleopatra | Name of seven
pharaohs. The most famous is Cleopatra VII, the last Pharaoh
of Egypt. She came to power at age 15, married to her
brother, Ptolemy XIII, also pharaoh. The two began a civil
war in 48 B.C. With the aid of the Roman leader Julius
Caesar, Cleopatra defeated her brother and kept the throne,
this time sharing it with another brother, Ptolemy XIV, to
whom she was not married. She went with Caesar to Rome and
had a child soon after, naming it Caesarion. After Caesar's
murder in 44, Cleopatra returned to Egypt. She courted the
support of Caesar's ally, Marc Antony, and won his favor as
well. She threw all her military support behind Antony in
his war against Octavian, Caesar's adopted son, but it
wasn't enough. Octavian and his allies defeated Antony and
Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31. Rather than be
captured, they fled to Egypt and died separately. They were
buried together. Soon after, Rome conquered Egypt. |
| El Amarna | Named capital
city of Egypt by Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV). It thrived as the
new capital and lasted for years after the capital was moved
again. Also known as Akhetaten. |
| Elephantine | City built on
an island in the middle of the Nile and named for its
unusual rock formations that resemble elephants. For a long
time the southernmost city in Egypt, Elephantine was a
center for trade between Egypt and Kush, another ancient
African civilization. |
| Giza | Site of
several large Old Kingdom Pyramids, including the Great
Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops). Giza was originally associated
with Memphis, which was then the capital city of the
Pharaohs. The Sphinx is also nearby. |
| Hatshepsut | First woman
pharaoh. She was the daughter of Ahmose, the wife of
Thutmose II. His son, Thutmose III, became pharaoh at a very
young age; and his mother, Hatshepsut, was named regent. Six
years later, in 1473 B.C., she declared herself pharaoh. She
ruled by herself for 15 years, then disappeared about the
time her son decided he wanted the throne for
himself. |
| Heliopolis | City in
northeast Egypt, near Giza. The Egyptians called it Iunu.
Heliopolis was the Greek name. This city was the center of
the huge sun god cult. The sun god was Ra, or Aten. |
| Hieroglyphs | Symbols that
formed a language in ancient Egypt. Originally, a hieroglyph
represented a concept or an idea, or a group of words.
Eventually, one symbol stood for one letter or one sound.
This progression later led to the development of an
alphabet. Many hieroglyphs honored pharaohs and gods; others
described ordinary life. |
| Horus | The falcon
god. He is the symbol of the heavens themselves. He is seen
as the divine symbol of kingship and as a protector of Egypt
against outside attacks. His main rival is Seth (Seti). He
is sometimes seen as the god of the rising sun. |
| Hyksos | Foreign
people who conquered Egypt about 1640 B.C. and ruled for
about 100 years, until they were driven out by Thutmose I.
The Hyksos let the Egyptians continue with many of their
customs but left behind some important technological
advances, including the chariot and the scimitar. |
| Isis | Most powerful
of all Egyptian goddesses. She was the goddess of funeral
rites. She was the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, and
was also known as the "giver of life." She was represented
in the night sky by Sirius, which shone brightest at the
time of the year of the annual Nile floods. Isis was then
associated with the bringing of new soil and new crops and
food to the people who worshipped her. |
| Khufu | Pharaoh of
the 4th Dynasty. He ruled from 2589 to 2566 B.C. He had
built the Great Pyramid of Giza. |
| Memphis | Important
city in ancient Egypt. Memphis was home to many chariot
factories, which helped the Egyptian war effort. Memphis was
also the site of many huge statues to Ramses II. |
| Middle Kingdom | Two-dynasty
period in which foreign trade and building projects rapidly
increased. The 11th Dynasty (1986-1937) and the 12th Dynasty
(1937-1759) make up this period, which ended with the
conquest of Egypt by the Hyksos. |
| Mummy | Method of
preserving pharaohs and other important Egyptians for the
afterlife. The ancient Egyptians strongly believed in an
afterlife, somewhere they would go after their life here on
Earth. The body was preserved as a mummy to keep it ready
for the journey into the afterlife. Many mummies were placed
in pyramids; others were placed in tombs that were
elsewhere. |
| Narmer | Famous First
King of the First Dynasty. He is the first Egyptian pharaoh.
He is almost a legendary figure. He united Lower Egypt and
Upper Egypt into one strong land in the 32nd Century B.C. His reign is
called the beginning of the Old Kingdom. |
| Nefertiti | Exotic queen
of the famous pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV). She was very
supportive of her husband's religious changes and played a
very public role in accepting them and making sure other
people did, too. She also believed that Aten was the one god
who should be worshipped above all others. |
| Nephthys | Goddess
associated with darkness and death. She was wife to Seth and
sister to Isis and Osiris. To the Egyptians, darkness and
death weren't bad things. Death was just a step on a
journey, and darkness was just a temporary absence of light.
So, Nephthys wasn't looked on as a bad goddess. |
| New Kingdom | Period
beginning after the driving out of the Hyksos. The New
Kingdom began with the reign of Ahmose, in 1539. Art
flourished, as did building projects. Most of the famous
pharaohs ruled during this period, including Akhenaten
(Amenhotep IV), King Tut, Thutmose II, and Ramses II. |
| Nile | Lifeblood of
Egyptian civilization. This river gave the Egyptians water
for their crops and for the lives as a whole. It flooded
every year, roughly at the same time; and each time, it left
rich, new soil for new crops. The Egyptians also used the
Nile for trade, as trading boats traveled to and from
Egypt. |
| Old Kingdom | First of the
Kingdoms in Egypt. The Old Kingdom began in 2650 B.C. when
Sanakhte took the throne as king. During this period,
pyramid-building slowly shifted from step pyramids to "true"
pyramids, with smooth surfaces. Khufu, who had built the
Great Pyramid of Giza, lived during this period. The Old
Kingdom ended in 2152, with the breakdown of centralized
government. |
| Osiris | God of the
dead. Husband of Isis and father of Horus. Brother of
Seth. |
| Papyrus | Plant used to
make many useful things, including a paper-like substance to
write on. The Egyptians wrote on rolls of papyrus, using
hieroglyphs and other forms of writing. The desert climate
of Egypt has preserved many rolls of papyrus even to this
today. |
| Ptolemy | Name of 15 pharaohs. Several of the
Ptolemies ruled by themselves; others ruled jointly with
other pharaohs. The first ruled after the death of Alexander
the Great, in 323 B.C. The last was co-ruler with Cleopatra.
These Egyptian rulers are not to be confused with the
geographer and scientist Ptolemy, whose real name was
Claudius Ptolemy and who lived in the first century
A.D. |
| Ramses | Name of 11
New Kingdom pharaohs. Ramses I was the first king of the
19th Dynasty. He was a soldier who worked his way up to
general and then king. He served only a year. His grandson,
Ramses II, lived to be 96 years old, had 200 wives, 96 sons
and 60 daughters. He was king for 66 years, outliving 13 of
his heirs. He won many famous battles and built many famous
buildings. His beautiful wife was Nefertari (not be confused
with Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten). Ramses II was the first
monarch to sign a treaty with another. In 1284 B.C., he
signed a treaty with the Hittite king Hattusili III. Each
civilization agreed not to attack the other and to defend
the other if attacked by a third civilization. |
| Seth | God of
disorder, war, deserts, and storms. Brother of Nephthys,
Osiris, and Isis. He is often thought to be a symbol of pure
evil. He is also known as Seti. Oddly enough, several
pharaohs were named Seti. |
| Shadoof | Device used
to raise water from one level to another. Operated by hand,
this device has a pole that looks like a seesaw. On one end
of the pole is a bucket. On the other end is a weight. The
Egyptians filled the bucket with water, then let go of the
bucket. The weight on the other end would raise the bucket
of water. |
| Sphinx | Giant
limestone statue near Giza, near the Pyramids. The sphinx
was a legendary creature that was said to have asked a very
difficult riddle "What is it that walks on four legs in the
morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at
night?" The legend said that anyone who was asked the riddle
but didn't know the answer would be eaten by the big sphinx.
Greek mythology says that Oedipus answered the riddle
correctly "Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on
two legs as an adult, and uses a cane (three legs) as an
older person." No one knows who had the sphinx built.
Thousands of years of wind erosion have worn away much of
the sphinx's face, but much of its body remains. |
| Thebes | Ancient capital of
Egypt, from about 2040 B.C. to 1353 B.C., when Akhenaton moved the
capital to El-Amarna. It was the center of worship for the god Amen
(Amon). Thebes is actually a Greek naming of Waset, the Egyptian name
of the capital city. |
| Thutmose | Name of four
New Kingdom pharaohs. Thutmose I was the general who drove
the Hyksos out of Egypt. He married the king's sister and
was named king in 1493 B.C. when King Amenhotep I died
childless. His son followed him to the throne in 1481.
Thutmose II's wife was Hatshepsut, who took the throne for
herself when her son, Thutmose III, was very young. He, in
turn, gained the throne in 1573. Thutmose IV was the son of
Amenhotep II and ruled from 1392 to 1382. |
