It is Egyptian Day today for our Year 4 children where we will be delving into the lives of the ancient and mysterious civilization that brought us the Pyramids; one of the great “Wonders of the World”.
History of ancient Egypt
People settled in Egypt as early as 6000 B.C. Over time, small villages joined together to become states until two kingdoms emerged: Lower Egypt, which covers the Nile River Delta up to the Mediterranean Sea in the north, and Upper Egypt, which covers the Nile Valley in the south. (The Nile River flows from south to north, so for the ancient Egyptians, the southern part of the country was “up.”)
Around 3100 B.C., a king (later called a pharaoh) united these two lands to be one country, and so historians begin the long history of ancient Egypt here, dividing it into different periods.
What were the pyramids?
The pyramids are giant tombs. Each side is a triangle, and they meet in a point at the top. The biggest is the Great Pyramid of Giza. It is built from 2.3 million big blocks of stone.
The children will all take part in a number of fun activities, starting with making Papyrus, which they will later form into sheets so that they can write their names on using Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Papyrus is a thick, paper-like writing material used in ancient times, as well as the tall, grass-like wetland sedge (Cyperus papyrus) from which it is made. Originating in Egypt over 5,000 years ago, it served as the world’s first portable writing surface before the invention of modern paper.
Hieroglyphics (or hieroglyphs) are a formal writing system used by ancient Egyptians that combined pictorial symbols with phonetic sounds. The word comes from the Greek for “sacred writing”. Priests and scribes used these intricate characters to record prayers, mythology, and the achievements of pharaohs on temple walls and tombs.
Costume Gallery:
This morning we took some shots of our very own Ancient Egyptians dressed to impress, which can be seen below. Please click on the thumbnails for a larger view.
