egypt

media type="custom" key="12242794"media type="custom" key="12242796" Name: ___ =‍ “The Gift of the Nile” =

// Background // : The Greek historian Herodotus (who is called “the father of the study of history”) visited Egypt in about 450 B.C. The following passage is from Book 2 of Herodotus’ __History__.

// Directions // : First, carefully read all of the questions that follow the passage. Then, go back and carefully read the passage. When you locate words or phrases that can help you answer the question, please underline or circle them. Finally, compose answers in complete sentences that echo the question.

// Quotation: //
 * “For anyone who sees Egypt…must perceive [see]…that the Egypt to which the Greeks go in their ships is an acquired [something worked for or achieved] country, the gift of the river.” **

// Statement // : Students of Egypt have interpreted this to mean that Egypt is the gift of the Nile River, since Herodotus says that “Egypt … is an acquired country, the gift of the river.”

Questions: 1. If “Egypt is the gift of the Nile,” who or what is doing the giving? nature is giving food and water to them.

2. If “Egypt is the gift of the Nile,” who or what is the gift? the gift is transportation or the water.

3. Explain what Herodotus means in your own words. Explain the relationship between the river and the Egyptian civilization. Be sure to use the words “civilization” and “resource” in your answer reasource is the key to answering things about civilizations

** Herodotus Passage II **


 * Read the passage about the effect of the Nile upon Ancient Egypt and answer the below question.**

“All these customs are practiced by the Egyptians who dwell above the fens [swamps]…. “When the river has become full and the plains have become flooded, there grow in the water great number of lilies, which the Egyptians call lotus; these they cut with a sickle [curved knife], and then they pound that which grows in the middle of the lotus…and they make of it loaves baked with fire….” “Besides this they pull up from the fens the papyrus which grows every year, and the upper pars of it they cut off and turn to making papyrus scrolls….” “Some, too, of these people live on fish alone…. When the Nile begins to swell, the hollow places of the land…first begin to fill…and soon they become full of water…filled with little fishes….” “…Those who dwell in the fens use oil from castor-berry…which they sow [plant] along the banks of the river…. The oil is fat and is as suitable for burning as olive oil, but gives forth a disagreeable smell which is good for keeping gnats away.” “Their boats with which they carry cargoes… are caulked [sealed] with papyrus…and they have sails of papyrus.”


 * Questions: **

1. What goods or products come from the Nile? olive oil and fish and water and castor berry

2. What tools or inventions are used to "harvest" the Nile? the sickle  3. How, according to Herodotus, did the Ancient Egyptians use the Nile, and with what tools, in order to sustain themselves?the sustained them shelfs by the water going up the crops would have more water and they made the sickle for a tool.