Egypt

3500-1000 B.C.

Egyptian Timeline • 3500-3100 - Predynastic Period

• 3100-2700 - Early Dynastic Period

• 2700-2100 - Old Kingdom

• 2100-1700 - Middle Kingdom

• 1500-1000 - New Kingdom

Old Kingdom

• First pyramid built for

King Zoser at Sakkara

(2600 B.C.)

• Designed my Imhotep,

the first known artist

• First huge stone structure

on Earth

-made of 6 steps and

over 20 stories tall

Old KingdomThe Great Pyramids

Old KingdomThe Great Pyramids at Giza

• Took 100,000’s of men to build

• Stones weighed between 2 - 40 tons

• Floated the stones up the Nile during flooding season and hauled to the edge of the desert

• Used levers, rollers, rope, and ramps to construct the pyramids

• The largest pyramid was built for Cheops and covers 13 acres, is 911 feet on each side of the base, 55 stories tall, took over 2 million blocks of limestone

• The largest structure on Earth until skyscrapers 4500 years later

Old KingdomThe Great Pyramids at Giza

Old KingdomThe Great Pyramids at Giza

• Guarded by the

Great Sphinx

• A statue 240 feet long,

body of a lion, head of

Chefren, a pharaoh one

of the 3 pyramids was

built for

New Kingdom

• Most prosperous time in

Egypt’s history

• Temples were built as

homes for gods and priests,

not just pharaoh tombs

• Arts flourished. Painting

style changed from being stylistic to more realistic.

• Ramses II had almost every temple rebuilt, redecorated, or expanded.

King Tutankhamen

• Became king when he was 9

years old

• Priests and military “guided” his

decisions and were able to bring Egypt

back to their old ways.

• When he was 19 he was ruling on

his own but died suddenly

-Tomb was discovered in 1922

- It hadn’t been touched in 3,000 years

- It took 10 years to empty everything out of it

Mummification

Egypt Questions

• 1. Explain how the Nile River influenced the development of Egyptian culture.

• 2. Who was Imhotep? What is his importance in art history?

• 3. Why do we know so much about Egyptian society in art?