WORKSHEET

PHARAOHS, PYRAMIDS
AND THE WORLD
OF THE GODS
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1. THE PHARAOH

The word ‘pharaoh’ comes from Egyptian and the pharaohs, who suc-
means ‘great house‘. The term was used along ceeded each other over
with the five royal names of the king. The phar- a series of 30 dynasties.
aohs were the same as gods and were absolute Historians divide the history
rulers over the country and its people. of Egypt into the Old,
They were also responsible for maintaining the Middle, and New King-
order of life on earth. At the same time, they had doms and the Late Period.
to make sure that the people of Egypt honored Sovereignty over Egypt was
the gods and that the gods were happy with the closely connected with be-
people. So the pharaohs were responsible for the lief in various gods. Djoser
temples, where they had to provide the furnish- (about 2700 B.C.) was the first pharaoh of all to
ings and offerings. It was also the pharaoh‘s duty have a pyramid built as his tomb.
to provide for his people‘s welfare in both this life Very little is known about Pharaoh Tutankhamun
and the next. today. He was the son of Pharaoh Akhenaten
Although the pharaoh‘s power was absolute, he and ruled over the Nile in the period of the New
employed a state administration which included Kingdom (18th–20th Dynasties, 1550–1070 B.C.)
officials, priests and governors. The rights and du- The 18th Dynasty began with Ahmose who ended
ties of a ruler began with his coronation, when the domination of the ‘Hyksos‘ over Egypt. The
a pharaoh took his five royal names. Pharaohs Hyksos came from the Near East and ruled over
were often succeeded by their sons when they Egypt from the Nile delta. Ahmose drove the
died but this wasn‘t always the case. Hyksos out of Egypt and his successors recon-
The pharaoh‘s crowns were worn on different oc- quered other areas, such as Nubia. Thebes, today
casions, and the ‘white‘ and ‘red‘ crowns symbol- known as Luxor, became the residence of the
ized Upper and Lower Egypt. The crowns were pharaohs. Their empire stretched along the Nile
designed so that the pharaoh could wear them from the Mediterranean to Nubia and extended
together. A sceptre and flail were also part of the as far as Mesopotamia. The Valley of the Kings in
insignia representing the power of the pharaohs. the city of the dead (necropolis), opposite Thebes
Menes is thought to be the first king, who united on the west bank of the Nile, became the burial
Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom around site for almost all the kings of the New Kingdom.
3000 B.C. This was the beginning of the reign of

Suggested Activity
Read the selection above and look at the map to find the
Ancient Egyptian sites. Use the map on page five in the school
material or look at maps of Egypt in an atlas or on the internet.

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2. THE GODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

The Osiris legend

The Ancient Egyptians used to recount
the following legend: the gods Osiris,

© project map Egypt, by Dieter Potente, Cornelsen Verlag Berlin 2002

Seth, Isis, and Nephthys were sisters and
brothers. Osiris was married to his sister
Isis, Seth to Nephthys. Osiris had inher-
ited the kingship in Egypt from his father
Geb. The people were content with his
reign as Osiris gave them good laws. But
his jealous brother Seth rose up against
him. He killed his brother, cut up his body
and threw the pieces into the Nile. Isis,
Osiris‘ grieving widow, searched for the
remains of her husband together with her
sister Nephthys. According to the leg- King Sethos I. is sacrifying to the gods Osiris, Isis and Horus
end, they found his body parts scattered
across the whole of Egypt and put them together for its healing and protective powers. While Horus
again with the help of Anubis, the god of em- became the new ruler on earth, his father Osiris
balming. This was the first mummy in Egypt. The became the King of Eternity, ruling over the realm
reconstructed Osiris was then able to conceive a of the dead. It was he who decided the fate of the
child with his wife Isis. Fearing Seth‘s anger, Isis deceased at the final judgement. The legend of
hid in the marshes of the Nile delta while she was Osiris soon came to represent the destiny of all
pregnant. There, she gave birth to the god Horus. people. Every person had to experience death,
When he grew up, Horus left his hiding place in just as Osiris had, but could also attain eternal life
order to avenge his father‘s murder. He defeated in the hereafter. The Egyptians of old believed
his uncle Seth in a terrible battle but lost an eye in that everyone who died became Osiris.
the fight. The god Thoth healed his damaged eye,
however, and ever since the Eye of Horus (Egyp-
tian: Udjat – ‘whole‘, ‘undamaged‘) was known

Suggested Activity
1. Write an exciting play which tells the legend of Osiris.

2. Perform part of the Osiris story in a short scene from your play.

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4

2. THE GODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Some Egyptian gods in more detail:

Osiris
God of the afterlife, he presides
over the judgement of the dead.
He is usually portrayed like a
pharaoh with a crown, sceptre
and flail.

Amun-Ra
For the Egyptians, the sun god
Amun-Ra was the creator of the
world. He is often portrayed
with a hawk’s head and a sun
disk.

Hathor
Goddess of love.
She is often portrayed as a cow
with a sun disk between her
horns.

Isis
She is Osiris’s wife and was seen
as the role model for all mothers
and the guardian of children. Isis
can be recognized by the throne
hieroglyph on her head.

Anubis
He is seen as the god of
embalming and supervises the
© project map Egypt, by Dieter Potente, Cornelsen Verlag Berlin 2002

weighing of the heart during

the judgement of the dead.
He has the head of a jackal.

Horus
According to legend, he is the
son of Isis and Osiris. He is por-
trayed as a hawk and wears the
royal double crown. Horus is the
protective god of the pharaoh.

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THE DISCOVERY OF KING TUT, © 2008-2014 | Research Consultants: Susanne Martinssen-von Falck, M.A. and Dr. Wolfgang Wettengel
5

2. THE GODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Suggested Activity
1. Cut out the pictures and text and put them together in the right
order.

2. Explain why the gods are often portrayed as part-human, part-

animal. Find out more information about the gods and goddesses
listed below. Use a textbook or the internet to help you.

Deity Appearance Function

Atum

Hapi

Geb

Nephthys

Sekhmet

Ptah

3. Copy the pictures of the gods and goddesses onto transparent
film. Project them onto a large piece of wallpaper and color
them in.

4. Present the individual gods and goddesses to your class,

describing their appearance and functions.

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 6

3. THE PYRAMIDS

A Greek traveler amazed by

Egypt
The Greek scholar Herodotus (c. 484–425 B.C.) attraction today. The pyramids are the only one of
was born in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. He the Seven Wonders of the World that still survive.
traveled widely and got to know the lands of Herodotus recounts what he was told by the local
Mesopotamia, the east coast of the Black Sea, Egyptians about Khufu‘s pyramid on his travels
Sicily and parts of Africa. He was a keen observer almost 2,000 years later:
and listened closely, if sometimes too believingly, “Khufu became king over them and brought them
to the stories the local people told him. His work, to every kind of evil: for he shut up all the tem-
The Histories, is seen as the first important history ples, and having first kept them from sacrifices
book ever written and he is known as the “Father there, he then bade all the Egyptians work for
of History.” him […] For the making of the pyramid itself there
Around 450 B.C., passed a period of twenty years; and the pyramid
Herodotus trave- is square, each side measuring eight hundred feet,
led through Egypt. and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone
Much of what he smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect
saw and heard manner, not one of the stones being less than
there filled the man thirty feet in length. This pyramid was made after
from Greece with the manner of steps which some called ‘rows‘ and
amazement. others ‘bases‘…“
Pharaoh Khufu After the Middle Kingdom came to an end, the
© Cornelsen Verlag, Berlin

ordered a massive pharaohs no longer built pyramids and instead

pyramid to be had their tombs carved out of rock. Whereas the
erected as his actual graves were underground and hidden in
burial site while lonely rocky valleys, the mortuary cult to honor
Herodotus
he was still alive the deceased was practiced in splendid temples
(around 2585 B.C.). He was a pharaoh of the Old in the Nile valley.
Kingdom. The Khufu Pyramid is a popular tourist

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THE DISCOVERY OF KING TUT, © 2008-2014 | Research Consultants: Susanne Martinssen-von Falck, M.A. and Dr. Wolfgang Wettengel
7

3. THE PYRAMIDS

Suggested Activity
1. Find out about the pyramid of Khufu from books or the internet.
2. Draw in the locations of Khufu‘s pyramid and the other pyramids
of Giza on the map of Egypt.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Rosetta

Alexandria

Bubastis
Nile Delta Bitter Lakes

Cairo
Giza
Memphis
Saqqara Dashur
Sinai
Lisht
Meidum
Medinet el-Fayum
Hawara

Beni
Hasan

Amarna

Assyut

Abydos Dendera

Western Thebes /
Karnak
Valley of the Kings
Luxor (Thebes)

Edfu
© project map Egypt, by Dieter Potente, Cornelsen Verlag Berlin 2002

Kom Ombo

Aswan/Elephantine

0 100 miles Abu Simbel Nubia

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THE DISCOVERY OF KING TUT, © 2008-2014 | Research Consultants: Susanne Martinssen-von Falck, M.A. and Dr. Wolfgang Wettengel
8

4. PHARAOH TUTANKHAMUN

It‘s relatively certain that Tutankhamun was the hamun‘s parents could have been brother and
son of Akhenaten, who reigned from 1353 to sister. But there‘s no evidence so far from the
1337 B.C. Akhenaten introduced a monotheistic Egyptian sources that Akhenaten married a sister
faith which was supposed to replace the Ancient of his. Akhenaten‘s chief wife was the famous
Egyptian religion with its many gods. Aten, the Nefertiti. Tutankhamun was originally given the
sun disk, became the only god. There‘s been a name Tutankhaten, in reference to the worship of
lot of speculation about Tutankhamun‘s mother. Aten. He was crowned pharaoh when he was only
The latest DNA investigations show that Tutank­ a child.
Two years into his reign he changed his name
to Tutankhamun, the ‘Living Image of Amun‘.
Tutankhamun married Ankhesenamun, the third
daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, in other
words his older sister or half-sister. Tutankhamun
reigned for nine years. Under him, Memphis
became the capital of the kingdom. He went back
to the old gods, and abolished his father‘s belief
in one god. A huge stele was set up in the temple
of Karnak on which Tutankhamun announced his
return to the old religion, and Thebes became the
religious centre of Egypt.
Tutankhamun was the head of a well-organized
state. Countless officials took care of the adminis-
tration. The priest Ay, who was perhaps Nefertiti‘s
father, was one of Tutankhamun‘s most important
advisers. General Horemheb was the commander
of the armed forces. The country returned to its
old traditions under Tutankhamun‘s rule, and
this restoration was an important step towards
stabilizing the kingdom again. When Tutankhamun
died in the spring of 1323 B.C. at 18 years of age,
Ay succeeded him on the throne.

Backrest of the Golden Throne of Tutankhamun

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THE DISCOVERY OF KING TUT, © 2008-2014 | Research Consultants: Susanne Martinssen-von Falck, M.A. and Dr. Wolfgang Wettengel
9

4. PHARAOH TUTANKHAMUN

Suggested Activity
1. Draw in Tutankhamun‘s tomb in the Valley of Kings on the map
of Egypt. (page seven)

2. Look for information about Tutankhamun in a textbook or on the

internet. Write a profile of the Pharaoh‘s life.

3. Look at the pictures, objects, and texts on Tutankhamun at the

exhibition. One of the most famous objects from the tomb of
Tutankhamun is the golden throne. You can see the throne in
the exhibition with its picture of Tutankhamun and his wife.
Ankhesenamun is rubbing her husband with perfumed oil.
After you‘ve visited the exhibition, write down what impressed
you the most about the burial goods. As a group, put together
a wall newspaper showing your individual impressions.

Developed by Facts & Files Historisches Forschungsinstitut Berlin, www.factsandfiles.com for TUTANKHAMUN – HIS TOMB AND HIS TREASURES and
THE DISCOVERY OF KING TUT, © 2008-2014 | Research Consultants: Susanne Martinssen-von Falck, M.A. and Dr. Wolfgang Wettengel