Meet the Ancient Egyptians: Builders of the Great Pyramids
More than 4,500 years ago, along a great river in Africa, workers stacked over two million giant stone blocks to build the Great Pyramid of Giza -- a building so enormous that it stayed the tallest structure made by humans on all of Earth for the next 3,800 years.
What You'll Learn
In this lesson you will: - Learn where and when ancient Egypt existed - Learn why ancient Egyptians built pyramids - Learn why the Nile River was so important to Egypt - Learn about hieroglyphics, ancient Egyptian writing
Where Was Ancient Egypt?
Ancient Egypt grew up along the Nile River in northeastern Africa, thousands of years ago. The most famous pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was built around 2560 BCE -- that's over 4,500 years before today -- as a tomb for a pharaoh (king) named Khufu.
Why Did They Build Pyramids?
Pyramids were giant stone tombs built for pharaohs, the powerful kings who ruled ancient Egypt. Egyptians believed a pharaoh needed a grand, protected resting place filled with treasures, food, and belongings for the afterlife. The Great Pyramid alone is made of more than 2 million huge stone blocks, each one weighing thousands of pounds, moved and stacked by thousands of workers.
The Nile River: Egypt's Lifeline
Most of ancient Egypt was hot, dry desert -- so how did people grow enough food to build entire cities? The answer is the Nile River. Every year, the Nile flooded its banks and left behind a strip of dark, rich soil perfect for farming. Egyptian farmers grew wheat and other crops in that soil, which is why almost every ancient Egyptian city was built right along the river.
Writing With Pictures: Hieroglyphics
Ancient Egyptians didn't write with letters like we do. Instead, they used hieroglyphics, a writing system made of small pictures that stood for sounds, words, or ideas. A wavy line could stand for water, and a small circle with rays could stand for the sun. Specially trained writers called scribes spent years learning hundreds of these symbols so they could record laws, stories, and history on stone walls and paper made from papyrus reeds.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest human-made structure on Earth from around 2560 BCE until England's Lincoln Cathedral was completed in 1311 CE -- a record that stood for roughly 3,800 years.
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Why did ancient Egyptians build the pyramids?
Why was the Nile River so important to ancient Egypt?
Write Your Name in Hieroglyphics
Look up, with an adult's help, a simple hieroglyphic alphabet chart showing which picture symbol stands for each English letter sound. Use it to spell out your first name using Egyptian-style picture symbols on a piece of paper, just like an ancient Egyptian scribe might have carved it into stone.
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