Exploring Egypt
By Shane & Hunter
Important poeple
Interviews
Amenhotep IV
Interviewer: Hello.
Amenhotep: Hello.
Interviewer: let’s get started, what do you think you are most known for?
Amenhotep: I think I am most known for trying to change the religion of Egypt from worshipping many gods to worshipping 1, Ra.
Interviewer: What were your main achievements as pharaoh?
Amenhotep: I think that some of them are, how I started using art to show my intentions. Also, I also moved the capital to a new location, new city too, it was called Akhenaton ‘horizon of the sun’. Finally I think that even though it didn’t last much after I died when I tried to change the religion to single god worshipped.
Interviewer: Thank you, now did you make any important decisions in your opinion?
Amenhotep: Other than changing the capital location and trying to change the religion as I mentioned earlier not in my opinion.
Interviewer: Ok, next question, what is your personal life like?
Amenhotep: Well I’m married to my cousin Nefertiti and we have 6 children, one of which is king tut (but Nefertiti is not his mom).
Interviewer: That will be it for today, thank you for coming I will hopefully see you again.
Ramesses
Interviewer: Hello.
Ramesses: Hello.
Interviewer: let’s get started, what do you think people know you as one of the most known pharaohs?
Ramesses: Maybe for being the longest lasting and living ruler of Ancient Egypt and also making a new city and naming Pi-Ramesses even Akhenaten didn’t dare doing something like this. This is also known that the temple of Abu-Simbel was built while I was pharaoh.
Interviewer: Ok, next question, what is your personal life like?
Ramesses: My parents were Seti I and Queen Tuya, and I am married to many women. I also have over 100 children in total, with all my wife’s.
Interviewer: What were your main achievements as pharaoh?
Ramesses: I built the temple of Abu-Simbel while being the longest ruling pharaoh of Egypt and having over 100 kids. I also built a new city with my name in it in the Nile delta. I also outlived most of my children and the next ruler was my 13th son that ended the 19th dynasty. Finally my legacy was so impressive that 9 later rulers were named after me.
Interviewer: Thank you, now did you have any main military success that helped Egypt?
Ramesses: At one point I was said to have 100,000 men in my army and even though most of my rule was fighting back what other rulers had lost. I also fought in famous battles like the battle of Kadesh which is if not the biggest one of the biggest said chariot battles.
Interviewer: Thank so much for taking time to come do interviews with us.
This picture shows me how important the pharaohs are, because they are at the top, and it tells me that the pharaohs have control over everything in the country including religion.
Questions
smithsonianmag.com
Cleopatra and Caeser talking about politics
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How did ancient Egypt become united? How did leadership affect the uniting of ancient Egypt?
Egypt became united from the surplus of food they got that they could then focus on other things which then made trade more important and over time they started trading with other empires along the Nile and to the south the Nubians and to the Northeast the Mesopotamians which then made Egypt a more important trading partner (textbook) the traders also learned about how the other country’s functioned and their politics. The rulers played an important role for they decided things like how many of each specialist was need for each job and they made sure they traded with enough people to get enough of what they didn’t have.
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How was ancient Egypt governed? How were religion and politics connected?
Egypt was governed by one ruler the pharaoh who was both the ruler of politics and the ruler of religion. They took advice for the politics from the bureaucrats and took advice for the religion from the priests, without this king Tut would not have been able to help Egypt and would have plunged them into more chaos then his father Amenhotep. According to many sources the Ancient Egyptians religion was inside of their politics.
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How did ancient Egyptian rulers affect trade, business and conflict?
Different pharaohs wanted different things for example in the textbook it stated “Hatshepsut was more interested in trade rather than starting wars”. This means that different rulers wanted different things because some focused on trading while others focused on taking more land for Egypt.
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Hatshepsut was one of the few women to rule ancient Egypt. Research another women leader and compare and contrast their leadership styles and impact on the societies they ruled. (Examples: Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I)
Cleopatra VII was sent to be the ruler of Egypt from Rome because Caesar wanted to gain riches and other things from Egypt so he wanted Cleopatra to be the new ruler of Egypt (king Tut one). Also from the same source it says that her brother wanted to kill her once Caesar left. She differs from Hatshepsut because instead of trying to increase the trade in Egypt Cleopatra wanted to help Rome become stronger and have more riches. Also whereas Hatshepsut improved Egypt in showing that it was its own country, Cleopatra did the opposite and ruled with Rome and Caesar.
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Use examples/evidence to support your answer to the question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of power
Power could be bad in a lot of ways. A few ways it is a bad thing is that because the pharaoh has power over everything like Akhenaton did you could change Egypt’s religion and politics completely and that could ruin the whole reason Egypt was successful in the first place. Also you might be a bigger target for empires trying to grow and expand so that then it looks like they are very powerful and strong. Finally the more power you have the more you want so the pharaoh could keeping trying to expand and expand until you were so big you couldn’t keep your country under control.