EGYPT CFE 3237V OPEN CAPTIONED ALTSCHUL GROUP CORPORATION 1994 Grade Levels: 7-10 20 minutes 1 Instructional Graphic Enclosed
DESCRIPTION Egypt, where Africa meets the Middle East, is a bridge between two continents, two cultures, and two worlds. Considers the importance of the Nile River and Cairo s influence on the country. Mentions historic sites, Arab influence, the people, and contrasts the old and the modern. Explores Egypt s historic heritage and modern challenges. INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS To portray both modern and ancient features of Egypt. To identify the major cities, bodies of water, and regions of Egypt on a map. To provide a general overview of the culture, religion, and economy of Egypt. To provide historical information related to Egyptian landmarks and monuments. BEFORE SHOWING 1. Preview the video to determine unfamiliar vocabulary and language concepts. 2. On a world map, locate the following: a. Africa, the Middle East region, Egypt, Cairo, and the Nile River. b. Egypt s boundaries: the Mediterranean Sea, Israel, the Red Sea, the Sudan, and Libya. 3. Briefly discuss important aspects of Egypt s geography, climate, culture, and economy. DURING SHOWING 1. View the video more than once, with one showing uninterrupted. 2. Pause after the segment on selling dates. Compare this man s job and standard of living with that of an American merchant. 1
3. ment on sewage disposal. Discuss problems which might arise from dumping a. Discuss the significance of the Nile River to b. Give reasons why over 96% of the entire 4. Discuss how Egyptian houses and the reasons this tradition is practiced. Discussion Items and Questions 1. Identify a U.S. state comparable in size to Egypt. 2. ctors which might contribute to Egypt having one of the highest automobile accident rates in 3. Identify evidence of Western influence on a. Include billboards, food, and clothing. Discuss how the Egyptian acceptance of Western influence might conflict with recent 4. Compare Salim s job of making water pots with workday, number of days worked each week, and wages. Research and report on cobras. a. b. Compare the potency of the cobra s venom 6. Compare the ages of the pyramids and the Sphinx 7. Discuss an Egypt. Identify why it remained a safe fortress over the centuries. 2
Applications and Activities 1. Using a software program or an atlas, create a map of Egypt. Identify and label the following: a. Cairo b. Suez Canal c. Nile River d. Mediterranean Sea e. Sinai Peninsula 2. Using a software program, graph and compare information about the different countries in the Middle East. Include: a. Education b. Population c. Religion 3. Create a time line to depict major historical events in Egyptian history from 640 A.D. to the present. 4. On a map, locate the Suez Canal. Research and report on the history and importance of the opening of the Suez Canal. 5. Research and report on the role of religious leaders and their influences on political change in the Middle East. 6. Imagine being a tourist at Colossi 3,400 years ago and leaving graffiti at the base of the monuments. Create a message on index cards and post on a classroom monument. 7. Search the Internet for information and graphics related to the King Tut exhibition. a. Create a report importing these graphics on a hypercard software program. b. Create and present a slide show using the software program. 8. Research and report on the legend of the curse of King Tut. 9. Discuss the use and role of hieroglyphics in Egyptian culture. 3
10. Compare the more democratic government of Include: a. b. Health care Research how Egypt s recent president, Anwar famous Camp David agreement. 12. Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak with other Middle Eastern leaders. Compare the local culture with Egypt. (See COMMUNICATION SKILLS 1. hieroglyphics. Share messages with classmates. 2. system for sign language. 3. storytelling using the children s book The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo. Read to a younger class. INSTRUCTIONAL GRAPHICS One instructional graphic is included with this lesson guide. It may be enlarged and used to create transparencies or copies. COMPARE CULTURES WEBSITES Explore the Internet to discover sites related to this topic. Check the CFV website for related information (http://www.cfv.org).
CAPTION SCRIPT Following are the captions as they appear on the video. Teachers are encouraged to read the script prior to viewing the video for pertinent vocabulary, to discover language patterns within the captions, or to determine content for introduction or review. Enlarged copies may be given to students as a language exercise. [man chanting Muslim prayer Arabic] [chanting continues] [tambourine jingling] (male narrator) Where Africa meets the Middle East, Egypt is a very important country. Apart from being the second-most populous country in Africa, it is the most populated country in the Arab world, and here, we begin to see the real essence of Egypt. [tambourine, instruments playing] Egypt is a bridge. It's a country which spans two worlds, two cultures, and two times. It's a link between Christians and Muslims, between the prehistoric and the modern world, and a bridge between two continents. Occupying the northeastern corner of Africa, 5 it sits upon the only land link between Africa and Asia. It's located on both continents. While the major portion is in Africa, the Sinai Peninsula is on the southwest corner of the Asian continent. Egypt is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the north, the Red Sea and Israel on the east, Sudan on the south, and Libya on the west. It controls the Suez Canal, one of the world's vital sea links, connecting the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean. The capital and the largest city is Cairo, located on the Nile River. [car horns blaring] honk, honk! honk, honk, honk! [tambourine, drums playing] Cairo is not only Egypt's largest city; it's the largest city in Africa and in the Middle East. Nearly a quarter of the Egyptian people live in this vast city.
Its influence on the culture, economy, and politics of the Arab Cairo remains a mix of East and West, of both cultures. Modern traffic jams highlight skills. It results in one of the highest in the world. [horns honking] but English and French are spoken by the educated classes. comes from ancient Egyptian, has died out except for its use Only about 5% of the population professes to be Christian. are Sunni Muslims, who worship Allah, supreme being of Islam. With a high rate of growth, Commercial advertisements in both Arabic and English to prayer which is heard daily from Moslem Once a British colony, Egypt became independent in 1922. dependent upon aid from the United States. past the 60 million mark. Nearly half the people are under Daily life is carried on, in large part, in the market, souk. Selling dates is not much of a job in Western countries, almost everywhere in Cairo. But it's the Egyptian people who the melting pot of cultures here. The typical Egyptian is of mixed He's married and has five children. house. He's an elder in his temple, called mosque, the descendants of Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks, Arabs, The official language spoken by almost all Egyptians community. Many Egyptians make their living souk, making and selling goods to the
Amid the hustle and bustle of a giant city, the pace of life remains fairly slow. The daily routine for the majority has changed little since the British first arrived here over a century ago. [Arabic music playing] Toward the middle of the day, people scurry home to enjoy a three- to four-hour siesta. Though most people think of the siesta as Hispanic, it actually originated in Egypt. Traffic jams will be somewhat alleviated with the completion of a new subway. Building underground is no easy matter in a city where the first drains were laid over 1,000 years ago. Engineers have been unable to trace the extent of the subterranean pipeway system. Sewage disposal in many regions is left to chance and to the Nile River, which flows through the center of the city. To this arid country and its people, the Nile is literally life itself. Over 96% of the people live along its banks and delta. Yet the Nile River valley accounts for only 4% of the total land area. It's one of the country's four major regions. [children shouting] Egypt, which is the size of Texas and New Mexico combined, is made up of dry desert plateau. The Arabian Desert lies in the east. The Libyan, or Western, Desert lies in the west. Across the Suez Canal lies the desert of the Sinai. The fourth major region is the Nile Valley, 950 miles long from the border of Sudan to its fertile delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. At Aswan, the Aswan High Dam forms Lake Nasser, the world's largest manmade lake. The Nile River draws its water from the south, deep in the African continent. It's the longest river in the world, extending over 4,000 miles. For over 5,000 years of recorded history, the Nile has meant life or death, feast or famine 7
for those who inhabited its fertile valley. For these people, the Nile is the source of all necessities of life. [man chanting prayers] [chanting continues] From prayers to celebrations such as this wedding. [festive music] To really appreciate Egypt, one must move out into the country, to be taken back several thousand years in time. The heart of Egyptian life lies close to the land. Here, very little has changed. Pictures of jugs like these are found among hieroglyphics which decorate the tombs and temples of early dynasties. Salim works his pottery wheel for 11 hours each day. Taking few breaks, he can make 90 jars a day, 6 days a week. His wages are good by Egyptian standards. These water jars are crucial for life here. When they break, they can be used for other things. Contrasts in the countryside can be astonishing. Primitive traditions are maintained side by side with fairly modern development. Another activity of the country is snake catching. Many locals from nearby villages catch snakes like this deadly cobra. Once in captivity, the snakes are accorded an honored status. Every house in the settlement keeps snakes in-residence. Back to that one great lifeline and aquatic highway, the Nile. Moving upstream takes travelers back in time. The Great Pyramid and Sphinx date back more than 4,000 years. They're perhaps the world's very first tourist attraction. Egypt is rich with history. Luxor, about two-thirds of the way up the Nile, is possibly the most beautiful and least-changed Egyptian city. The entire center city area, beside an unpolluted river, is dominated by ruins stretching over several hundred acres and comprising what is left of the ancient cities of Karnak and Thebes. The Arabic of Luxor is, literally, Al Uqsur, which, translated, means "the palaces." It's been called that for 5,000 years. 8
Luxor was once the capital of the kingdom called Waset, meaning "center of power." This was the core of the civilized world and a great culture whose relics are in evidence today. [horse hooves clopping] Not far from the palaces, there is more evidence of the magnificence of this ancient civilization. Imagine being a tourist 3,400 years ago and finding this. Early visitors must have been as awed by these 60-foot statues as any modern tourist. They recorded their impressions on the base of the monuments. Some inscriptions in Latin are over 2,000 years old. Others are even older: classical Greek. Tourism is not a new industry here. A short distance down the road, modern tourism thrives. The Valley of the Kings is one of the most-visited shrines in the world. The visitor is awed by the splendid trappings created for the nobility of the Ramses dynasty. [murmuring] The youthful Tutankhamun, known as King Tut, was also entombed here in 1340 B.C. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by a British archaeologist. Across the Nile lies the great temple at Karnak. This magnificent temple represents the best of the ancient Middle Kingdom at the height of its power. The entire complex is spread over a hundred acres and took 2,000 years to build. Three hundred sixty-five of these gigantic columns still remain standing. Most have been here over 3,000 years. Time and pollution have taken their toll. Much of the marble is cracked. The government has attempted temporary repairs using normal cement, but a more lasting solution will have to be found if these monuments are to survive in the modern world. While these buildings provide a connection to Egypt's ancient past, there is a different heritage which, though very old, 9
seems almost modern by comparison. This building dates back only 800 years. It would certainly be an antique in most other countries. It was built in the 12th century-- one of the marvels of the Islamic world, a spacious fortress and mosque known as the Citadel. Its massive walls reflect the kind of crusader fortress built further east. So secure were the Citadel's defenses, it remained the center of government throughout the centuries when Egypt was ruled by others, such as the Turks. [speaking Japanese] (narrator) The Moslem religion has been practiced in Egypt almost from the time of its founding by Mohammed. Cairo is central to the Islamic world. Here, Allah reigns supreme. But being at the center of the Arab world has often meant being in the center of controversy. Egypt's recent president, Anwar Sadat, by making peace with Israel in the famous Camp David agreement. But being a peacemaker cost him his life. [gunfire, soldiers shouting] He was brutally assassinated in 1981 by religious zealots. [crowd shouting] They were opposed to making peace with Israel. Sadat's successor, Hosni Mubarak, continued many of the same policies and pro-western bent. His popularity with many Egyptians suffered as a result. But the government is more democratic than many in the region. Its socialist economy has been relaxed to make it more favorable to free enterprise. It still has one of the largest sectors of government ownership of industry in all the Third World economies. This has benefited the people in programs like free education and free health care. Yet even with free education and compulsory attendance, took his place in history 10
more than half of the adult population remains illiterate. With over a million people added to the population every year, the government is pressed to provide for its people. Many Egyptians still live like this, in the middle of one of the world's most densely populated areas. Egypt is where Africa meets the Middle East-- a society that spans two continents, two cultures, and two ages. The span between the two classes, the rich and the poor, remains wide. [man chanting prayers] At the center of an Arab world that is emerging, Egyptian people are destined to play a leadership role in the Middle East as well as in the modern world. Funding for purchase and captioning of this video was provided by the U.S. Department of Education: PH: 1-800-572-5580 (V). 11
CFE 3237V EGYPT COMPARE CULTURES DIRECTIONS: Recordashort descriptionof eachitem undereach heading. CompareyourstatetoEgypt. Egypt 1. Traffic 2. Education 3. Religion 4. Jobs 5. Customs/ Traditions 6. Monuments