Page 52 - Bible History

THE GREAT FLOOD 25
and the other in the south, whose capital was Thebes. By and by, these two kingdoms were united under one king, called a pharao. Thus was formed the Kingdom of Egypt.
Not all of the people left the Land of Sennaar when How the nations/were scattered. Large groups of them Iha
Land of remained and in time built cities. Each city was a Senn
state with its own king. The people who lived in d the southern part of the country were known as Sumerians, and were the descendants of Cham.
The people who lived in the northern cities were
the descendants of Sem. Little by little the people began to move from one city to another. After a while they became half Sumerian and half Semite.
Two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, owed through this land, which came to be known as Babylon. The valleys of these rivers were fertile. The people of the land lived by farming. However, they did not dwell on their farms as the farmers of
today, because they were afraid of their enemies.. They had their homes in the cities, which were strongly forti ed, and went out from them to work in the elds.
There were also workers in wood and metal and brick, as well as soldiers. A leisure class, made up of thinkers and writers, developed the art of writing upon clay tablets. They used a wedge-shaped pencil which they pressed into soft clay, after which they baked the clay to make it hard. This method of writing is called cuneiform. It was used by all the people who lived in this region.
It was under Sargon the First that all the cities of