Across
- 2. king of the gods and believed to have ruled as the first pharaoh / also the god of the sun - often depicted in human form with the head of a hawk
- 4. one of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent / its flooding left the southern plains of what is now Iraq with the richest soil in the Near East
- 7. large waterfalls and rocky outcrops along the Nile
- 10. pictographic writing system used in ancient Egypt
- 15. time of increasing stability when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified / saw the development of canals and other irrigation systems that helped better manage the flow of the Nile - this led to increased agricultural productivity and economic stability
- 18. one of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent / its flooding left the southern plains of what is now Iraq with the richest soil in the Near East
- 19. another name for the Neo-Babylonian Empire / established after the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC / its greatest king Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Judah and Jerusalem - destroying the Temple of Solomon and forcibly relocating a large number of Judeans to Babylonia (period in Jewish history known as the Babylonian exile)
- 20. Semitic dynasty of Palestinian origin (from the Levant) that ruled over Lower Egypt from 1630 to 1523 BC / credited with the invention of the chariot
- 21. a deity who at one time may have been a local ruler in the Nile River's delta / originally associated with the city of Busiris in the Delta and is an example of a regional god who gained countrywide acceptance / lord of the underworld / represented as a mummified king
Down
- 1. mare nostrum or "our sea" to the Romans and the Green Lake to the Egyptians / the Nile empties into this body of water
- 3. rulers of ancient Egypt / both heads of state and the religious leaders of their people
- 5. where the Nile River originates / shared by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania in East Africa
- 6. also known as Menes / first king of a unified Egypt - he wore the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt
- 8. constructed as burial places for Egyptian royalty during the Old Kingdom
- 9. strongest military power that ruled over the largest empire yet assembled / its war machine made use of armored archers, catapults, and battering rams / adopted iron for armor and weapons / its capital Nineveh was located in northern Iraq / conquered Egypt in 671 BC
- 11. modern country situated in what was known as ancient Mesopotamia (the land between two rivers)
- 12. also known as the Pyramid Age / time of political stability and economic prosperity, with a strong centralized government (whole country under the rule of the pharaoh)
- 13. river that flooded annually and left behind a layer of silt that enriched the soil and made it ideal for growing crops
- 14. wetland that formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea
- 16. ancient kingdom in Nubia (in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt) / developed many cultural affinities with Egypt, which it conquered and ruled over from 760-656 BC
- 17. region along the Nile south of the First Cataract / home to several empires, most prominently the Kingdom of Kush, which conquered Egypt in the 8th century BC
- 19. world's first writing system / used wedge-shaped characters that were impressed on clay tablets