Egypt and the gift of the Nile
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What you will learn
By the end, you can say why the Egyptians lived by the Nile and name three things they are famous for.
In 1799, soldiers digging in Egypt found a heavy slab of dark stone covered in carvings. The same message was written on it three times, in three kinds of writing. One was Greek, which people could still read. That slab, the Rosetta Stone, became the key that unlocked Egypt's picture writing.
Read the explanation
Ancient Egypt lasted about 3,000 years, from about 3100 BC to 30 BC. Most of Egypt is desert, so almost everyone lived along the River Nile. Every summer the river flooded and left rich black mud on the fields. Farmers grew wheat and barley in it, and boats on the river carried food, people and giant stones.
- Pyramids: giant stone tombs for pharaohs. The Great Pyramid at Giza was built about 2560 BC.
- Hieroglyphs: writing made of picture signs. Scribes wrote them on papyrus, a paper made from reeds.
- Pharaohs: the rulers of Egypt. Tutankhamun's tomb, found in 1922, was still full of treasure.