Western Civ Blog 8

Today in class I took my shadow on a tour while my classmates finished taking the Mesopotamia test. Then we went over and took notes on the Nile and the "two lands." I learned that upper Egypt was a 500 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile. Lower Egypt was the wide land along the Nile delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in lore and writing. Around 3100 BC the two lands were united under a single king of pharaoh (Narmer). Pharaoh was all powerful, worshiped as a god, and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses. Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called "maat". Isfet is the opposite of maat- bad. Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace. Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husband, only few ever achieved political power through. Gods were often portrayed as being people with animal heads or bodies. Egyptians believed in after-life (ka) and they mummified bodies to preserve them for this past-death journey. All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and either sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster.