Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Where is it?

Look at this map: http://maps.google.com/. Zoom out until you can see North America and Europe/Africa on the same screen.

See where we live?

Over on this other part of the map is Egypt today. Print this map, color it, and hang it on the wall for reference. Mark your house and Egypt.

Now click on Egypt and zoom in until you have a map just of that country. Print and color this, too. Point out the Nile river and some of the major cities. Click on "terrain" and "satellite" and talk about the different details you can see.

What kind of landscape is there in Egypt? Mostly desert, with a big fertile strip in the middle where the Nile river is.

Now click on this page: http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egypt-map.html and look at the maps there. Finally, print and color this map, too, and add it to the others on your walls:
http://www.rom.on.ca/programs/activities/egypt/learn/map.php.

LONG ago (we'll talk about this more in the next lesson), Egypt really was just the area around the river. Everything else was desert that nobody really wanted. Look at the map and talk about what is on it. See how some of the cities are the same? They are very old cities. Talk about the individual cities. For example, Alexandria had the greatest library in the ancient world and one that people are still sad that it burned down.

You can look up some of these cities (Cairo, Alexandria, Thebes, Memphis, Heliopolis, etc) on wikipedia for more information about them.

Notice on the map that LOWER Egypt is at the TOP, and UPPER Egypt is at the BOTTOM. Why do you think this is? (It has to do with the direction the Nile flows....)

Spend some time studying the maps and discussing them, and then save them for reference for the next few months as we study Ancient Egypt.