Ancient Egypt Crossword

Print a criss-cross ancient Egypt crossword on the Nile, writing, building, burial and the pharaohs, with its answer key.

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Ancient Egypt Crossword

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Answer key: Ancient Egypt Crossword

1SC2NR3OI4COBRALL5SCRIBELI6P7S8PHINX9MUMMYHR10PAPYRUS11GIZARMA12HIEROGLYPHDH

Across 4 COBRA · 5 SCRIBE · 7 SPHINX · 9 MUMMY · 10 PAPYRUS · 11 GIZA · 12 HIEROGLYPH

Down 1 SCROLL · 2 NILE · 3 OASIS · 6 PYRAMID · 8 PHARAOH

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The Nile and Farming 39

  • Akhet Season of high water, first of the three seasons of the Egyptian year
  • Aswan City beside which a High Dam was finished in 1970
  • Barley Staple cereal of Egypt along with wheat
  • Basin Plot ringed by earth banks that trapped the high water until the soil was soaked
  • Bread Baked staple of the Egyptian diet, made at home or in special bakeries
  • Canal Irrigation channel; water that rose too high could wreck it
  • Cat Pet that Egyptians honored and linked with the goddess Bastet
  • Cataract One of six shallow, rocky stretches of rapids in the river's southern reaches
  • Crocodile Animal sacred to the god Sobek, a danger at every riverbank
  • Date Sweet fruit of a palm, grown in Egypt since prehistoric times
  • Delta Broad lowland that begins just north of Cairo and ends at the coast
  • Deshret Red crown of the north; the same word named the barren country beyond the fields
  • Donkey Long-eared pack animal, first tamed in Africa
  • Emmer Hulled wheat, a chief crop of Egypt, also called farro
  • Flax Blue-flowered plant whose stem fibers were spun and woven into fine cloth
  • Flood Yearly overflow of the river, timed by the dawn return of the star Sirius
  • Granary Where a year's crop was kept dry and counted
  • Hapi God of the yearly high water in Egyptian myth
  • Ibis Black-headed white bird whose likeness the god of scribes wears
  • Kemet Old name of Egypt that sets its dark floodplain against the red waste beyond
  • Lotus Water plant whose picture stood for the number 1,000
  • Lower ___ Egypt: the northern land, where the river nears the sea
  • Marsh Wet ground thick with reeds and wild birds
  • Nile River whose summer rise puzzled the Greek historian Herodotus
  • Nilometer Stepped well or marked pillar that showed how high the river had risen
  • Oasis Siwa or Kharga, for example: a fertile island in a sea of sand
  • Ox Strong horned animal that dragged farm tools through the soil
  • Peret Season of the Emergence, when the fields came out of the water and were sown
  • Plow Wooden one, drawn by cattle, turned the soil before planting
  • Reed Tall wetland plant; tied in bundles, it made light boats
  • Sahara Great desert whose name is simply the Arabic word for desert
  • Sail With one, a boat could ride the north wind upstream, against the current
  • Shaduf Water-lifting device still worked by hand on some farms: a long beam balanced on a post
  • Shemu Season of low water, when the grain was cut
  • Sickle Reaping tool; the earliest had flint blades in wooden handles
  • Silt Black gift of the high water: fine soil dropped on the fields
  • Sinai Peninsula to the northeast where Egyptians mined turquoise
  • Upper ___ Egypt: the southern land, upstream of Cairo
  • Wadi Arabic word for a valley that is dry except after a storm

Scribes and Writing 33

  • Ahmes Copyist whose name is on a famous roll of math problems
  • Ankh Looped cross that stands for life
  • Book ___ of the Dead: modern name for a roll of magic texts placed in a tomb
  • Calendar Egypt's had three seasons of four months each
  • Cartouche Name ring; French soldiers thought it looked like a gun cartridge
  • Champollion Jean-François ___, decipherer who built on the work of Thomas Young
  • Coptic Last stage of the Egyptian language, written mostly in Greek letters
  • Demotic Script whose name comes from the Greek for popular
  • Determinative Silent sign at the end of a word that shows its kind of meaning
  • Djed Pillar sign that stands for stability
  • Finger Curved one was the sign for 10,000
  • Fraction Part of a whole; Egyptians wrote nearly all of theirs with a one on top
  • Hieratic Script whose name comes from the Greek for priestly
  • Hieroglyph One sign of the formal picture script carved on walls and monuments
  • Ideogram Sign that stands for a whole word or idea
  • Ink Egyptians made it in black and in red, colored with ocher
  • Ostracon Flake of stone or broken pot used as cheap scrap for notes and sketches
  • Palette Board for mixing black and red, shown in the very sign that means writer
  • Papyrus Wetland plant whose stems were sliced, pressed and dried into sheets to write on
  • Phonogram Sign that stands for a sound
  • Rope Coiled sign that stood for the number 100
  • Rosetta ___ Stone: slab in the British Museum that gave scholars the key to the old script
  • Scribe Record keeper whose long schooling freed him from heavy labor
  • Scroll Long rolled sheet, the usual form of a long text
  • Seal Carved stamp pressed into clay to mark who owned or sent a thing
  • Seshat Goddess of writing and record-keeping in Egyptian myth
  • Sinuhe Hero of a famous Egyptian story who flees abroad and comes home in old age
  • Stela Upright slab carved with words or pictures, set up as a marker or memorial
  • Tadpole Young frog whose sign stood for 100,000
  • Tax Share of the crop collected for the king and written down
  • Ten Number of days in each of the three parts of an Egyptian month
  • Thoth God who, in myth, invented writing and recorded the weighing of hearts
  • Vowels Sounds that the Egyptian scripts did not write down

Pyramids and Temples 41

  • Abu Simbel Cliff temples, half lost under sand until a Swiss traveler came upon them in 1813
  • Alabaster Soft, pale rock that lets light through, carved into jars and lamps
  • Bent Name of the royal tomb at Dahshur whose slope changes partway up
  • Block One cut piece of rock; the largest royal tomb holds about 2.3 million
  • Capstone Top piece of a great tomb, shaped like a tiny copy of the whole
  • Casing Smooth outer layer of fine white rock that once covered the great tombs
  • Causeway Raised, walled road that led from the river plain up to a royal tomb
  • Chamber Room deep inside a royal tomb
  • Chisel Sharp-edged hand tool for cutting rock
  • Colossus Giant statue, such as each of the four on the front of a great cliff temple
  • Column Tall round roof support, often carved to look like a plant
  • Copper Metal of the chisels and saws of the early builders
  • Courtyard Sunlit open area just past the first gate of a temple
  • Cubit Builder's unit: the length of a forearm, divided into seven palms
  • Edfu Town with one of the best preserved temples, built under the Ptolemies
  • Giza Plateau at the edge of greater Cairo, crowned by the largest royal monuments
  • Granite Very hard rock; a red kind was cut for many obelisks
  • Hypostyle Greek for under columns: a roofed hall with a forest of supports
  • Imhotep Official credited as architect of the first step-sided royal tomb
  • Karnak Vast temple complex of Amun, enlarged by king after king for centuries
  • Lever Long bar, a simple machine, that helped shift heavy loads into place
  • Limestone Pale building rock; the finest and whitest came from Tura
  • Luxor Modern city that stands where the southern capital once did
  • Mastaba Arabic for bench: the low oblong tomb of early nobles
  • Mudbrick Building unit of river mud and straw dried in the sun, used for houses
  • Obelisk Tapering four-sided pillar with a pointed tip, raised at a temple gate
  • Philae Island temple complex that was moved to higher ground when a dam was built
  • Plumb ___ bob: weight on a string that shows a true vertical
  • Pylon Massive gateway of a temple: two sloping towers with the entrance between
  • Pyramid Monument built as a king's tomb, most often in the Old and Middle Kingdoms
  • Quarry Place where a huge unfinished needle of stone still lies in the bedrock
  • Ramp Sloping bank up which builders probably dragged the blocks
  • Relief Picture carved into a wall so that it stands out from or sinks into the surface
  • Sandstone Rock cut at Gebel el-Silsila, a great working on both banks of the river
  • Saqqara Burial ground near the first capital, where the earliest step-sided royal tomb stands
  • Shaft Narrow passage cut straight through rock
  • Shrine Innermost room of a temple, where the god's statue was kept
  • Sledge Sled; a tomb picture shows 172 men hauling a huge statue on one
  • Sphinx Guardian statue: lion below, king's face above, facing the sunrise
  • Village Deir el-Medina was one: home of the craftsmen who cut the royal tombs
  • Wonder One of seven in a famous ancient list; only the Egyptian one still stands

Mummies and Tombs 37

  • Amulet Good-luck piece worn by the living and bound up with the dead
  • Anubis Canine-headed god of embalming and guide of the dead in Egyptian myth
  • Ba Part of the soul shown as a bird with a human head
  • Canopic ___ jar: one of a set of four burial vessels, each lid a guardian's head
  • Carter Howard ___, archaeologist who opened a boy king's tomb in 1922
  • Cartonnage Layers of cloth stiffened with plaster and painted, used for face covers and cases
  • Coffin Case shaped to the body, with the owner's face painted on it
  • Duat Underworld through which the dead traveled in Egyptian belief
  • Embalmer Skilled worker who prepared the dead for the tomb
  • False door Carved doorway that leads nowhere, where gifts of food were laid
  • Feather Emblem of truth laid on one pan of the balance when the dead were judged
  • Field ___ of Reeds: the happy farmland of the afterlife
  • Heart Organ left in place, because it was to be weighed in the hall of judgment
  • Jackal Wild dog of the desert edge, the animal of the god of embalming
  • Ka Life force of a person, kept going after death by gifts of food and drink
  • Kings Valley of the ___: desert gorge where New Kingdom rulers lay in rock-cut tombs
  • Linen By far the most common cloth of Egypt, cool in the heat
  • Maat Goddess of truth and order, and the word for that order itself
  • Mask Face covering; a famous one of gold was found on a boy king in 1925
  • Mourner Person who grieves for the dead at a funeral
  • Mouth Opening of the ___: rite meant to let the dead breathe, eat and speak
  • Mummy Preserved dead person or animal; making one was said to take up to seventy days
  • Natron Natural salt from dry lake beds that dried the body
  • Necropolis Greek for city of the dead: a vast cemetery
  • Offering Food or drink left at a tomb for the dead
  • Osiris God of the afterlife in Egyptian myth, shown with green skin and wrapped legs
  • Portrait Painted face on a wooden panel, set over the wrapped dead in Roman times
  • Priest Temple servant who led the rites for the dead
  • Resin Sticky tree sap that sealed the wrappings
  • Robber Thief who broke into tombs for their riches
  • Sarcophagus Heavy outer box of stone that held the nested wooden cases
  • Scale Weighing tool with two pans, at the center of the judgment of the dead
  • Scarab Beetle-shaped charm; the dung beetle stood for the rising sun
  • Shabti Servant figurine for the next life, most often of glazed faience
  • Spell Set of magic words written out to guide the dead
  • Treasure Gold, jewels and fine goods buried with a ruler
  • West Side of the river given over to tombs, as the land of the dead

Pharaohs and Kingdoms 47

  • Ahmose King who drove out the foreign rulers of the north and began the New Kingdom
  • Akhenaten King, first called Amenhotep IV, who changed his name and his capital
  • Alexandria Mediterranean city, capital under the last royal house, that bears its founder's name
  • Amarna Place where a store of royal clay letters was found in the 1880s
  • Aten Sun disk honored above all gods by one king
  • Beard A false one was part of a king's formal dress
  • Cleopatra Queen, the seventh of her name, who died in 30 BCE as Rome took Egypt
  • Cobra Hooded snake, the emblem of the north and of the goddess Wadjet
  • Crook Shepherd's hooked staff, a sign of the right to rule
  • Djoser King whose six-tiered monument is the oldest large building of cut stone
  • Dynasty Ruling family; the historian Manetho counted thirty of them in Egypt
  • Empire What Egypt became when its armies reached the Euphrates
  • Flail Emblem that stood for the fertility of the land, held with a hooked staff
  • Hatshepsut Female king whose terraced temple stands under the cliffs at Deir el-Bahari
  • Hedjet White crown of the south
  • Hittites People of Anatolia who fought Egypt and later made peace with it
  • Horus Sky god whose eye became a sign of protection
  • Hyksos Rulers of foreign origin who held the north before the New Kingdom
  • Kadesh Town on the Orontes, site of a great chariot battle in 1274 BCE
  • Khufu Builder king also known by the Greek name Cheops
  • Kush Southern kingdom whose rulers conquered Egypt and reigned there in the 700s BCE
  • Memphis Capital in the age of the first dynasties, south of modern Cairo
  • Menes Name that later tradition gave to the first king of a united Egypt
  • Narmer Founder king, about 3100 BCE, whom many scholars credit with joining the two lands
  • Nefertiti Queen whose painted bust is in a Berlin museum
  • Nemes Cloth headdress with two flaps hanging to the shoulders
  • Nomarch Governor of one of the provinces of Egypt
  • Nome One of the provinces, 42 in the traditional count
  • Nubia Land through which gold, ebony and ivory came north to Egypt
  • Pepi King said to have reigned for more than ninety years
  • Persia Power from the east that conquered Egypt in 525 BCE
  • Pharaoh Royal title that Egyptians themselves used only from the New Kingdom on
  • Pschent Double crown that joined the white and the red
  • Ptolemy General of Alexander who founded the last royal house of Egypt
  • Punt Distant land that sent Egypt gold, ebony and sweet-smelling resins
  • Ra Sun god of Egyptian myth; each king was called his son
  • Ramesses Royal name; the second to bear it, called the Great, lived to about ninety
  • Regent Stand-in ruler for a monarch too young to govern
  • Sed ___ festival: jubilee that renewed a king's powers after thirty years
  • Thebes Southern capital of the Middle and New Kingdoms, city of Amun
  • Throne Royal seat; the goddess Isis wears its sign on her head
  • Thutmose Name of the conqueror king sometimes called the Napoleon of Egypt
  • Treaty Pact that ends a war; a copy of an Egyptian one hangs at the United Nations
  • Tutankhamun King who was crowned as a child and died at eighteen or nineteen
  • Uraeus Rearing snake worn on the front of the royal crown
  • Vizier Top official, whose duties a New Kingdom text sets out
  • Vulture Bird of the goddess Nekhbet, the emblem of the south

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grade 4 to 8 social studies, in five sets: the Nile and farming, scribes and writing, pyramids and temples, mummies and tombs, pharaohs and kingdoms. Names, dates and meanings were checked against English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. No clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This ancient Egypt crossword is a vocabulary crossword for Letter or A4. The first puzzle has 12 easy answers, among them Pyramid, Pharaoh, Papyrus and Sphinx.

Read the full guide

Five sets for a unit on Egypt

The Nile and Farming has Shaduf, Nilometer and the three seasons, Akhet, Peret and Shemu. Scribes and Writing has Cartouche, Hieratic and the number signs, a coiled Rope for 100 and a Tadpole for 100,000. Pyramids and Temples has Mastaba, Pylon and Capstone. Mummies and Tombs has Natron, Canopic and Shabti. Pharaohs and Kingdoms has Hatshepsut, Kadesh and Uraeus.

Dates, gods and mummies

Dates are written BCE. Gods such as Anubis and Thoth are clued as Egyptian myth, and the mummy clues keep to salt, linen and charms.

  • Print Scribes and Writing after the class has tried spelling its names in hieroglyphs: Phonogram, Determinative and Vowels say why that is hard.

Questions and answers

What grade is the ancient Egypt crossword for?

Easy Ancient Egypt Words suits grades 4 and 5, with answers such as Mummy, Scribe and Oasis. The five themed sets match a sixth grade ancient history unit and suit grades 6 to 8. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Does the ancient Egypt crossword have an answer key?

Yes. Every print ends with the key on a sheet of its own, so the puzzle can go to the class and the key can stay with you. It is free, with no sign-up.

How long did it take to make a mummy?

Up to seventy days, by the ancient accounts. The body was dried with natron, a natural salt, and wrapped in linen. Mummy, Natron, Linen and Embalmer are all answers in Mummies and Tombs.

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