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• Upper Egypt- 500 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile; Lower Egypt- wide land of the Nile Delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea
• Nile- major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in lore and writing
• 3100 B.C. the two lands were united by the single- king or pharaoh, Narmer
• Pharaoh- worshiped as a god, god-king
• relied on harmony and balance of universe which is called "maat" and is represented by goddess named Maat and the opposite is Isfet
• Pharaohs had multiple wives and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace
• women could inherit money and land and divorce their husbands, though only a tiny few wielded real political power
• Gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife, ka, and they mummified bodies to preserve them 
• all souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and be either sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster
• first Egyptian writing formed around 3100 B.C. and were small pictures called hieroglyphics
• Egyptian script was usually written in ink on papyrus which was made from mashed Nile reeds 
• Papyrus, the precursor to paper, was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of ancient Egypt
• Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of seasonal cycles
• wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transportation ability on the Nile
• The Temple of Amon at Karnal is the largest religious building in the world. also made out of huge blocks of stone
• stone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans and gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective