Egypt 1.3: The Nile River

• ​Farmers were able to grow surpluses of crops

• ​Extra food meant people could work as artisans, merchants, and traders

• ​as goods became more available, villages along the Nile traded with one another

• ​caravans carried goods to Nubia in the south and place outside their borders like Mesopotamia

• ​As farming and trade increased, there was a need for a larger, organized government in Egypt

• ​a government could help with the following:

  • overseeing construction and repair of irrigation ditches and dams

  • ​developing a process for storing and distributing grain when there was little food

  • ​settling conflicts over land ownership

• ​small villages along the Nile formed into kingdoms ruled by a king

• ​weaker kingdoms fell to the stronger kingdoms

• ​By 4000 BC, Egypt was made up of two kingdoms

  • ​Upper Egypt - south Egypt

  • ​Lower Egypt - along the delta in the north

• ​Narmer was a king of Upper Egypt

• ​Around 3100 BC, he let his armies north to the Nile's delta and conquered Lower Egypt

• ​He also married a lower Egypt princess which helped unify Lower and Upper Egypt into one kingdom

• ​Narmer established a new capital at Memphis on the border between Upper and Lower Egypt

• ​He governed both parts of Egypt from this city

• ​Memphis grew to be a center of government and culture along the Nile

• ​Narmer's kingdom last long after his death because the right to rule was passed down to his family

• ​This was known as a dynasty or a line of rulers from one family

• ​For almost 3,000 years, Egypt had 30 dynasties

• ​these dynasties are organized into three categories: Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms

• ​throughout these three time periods, Egypt was usually united under one single ruler and enjoyed stable government

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