It really bothers me that northern Egypt is called Lower and Southern Egypt is called Upper (at least that is what I understand)... it seems that it should be vice-versa since N is up and S is down.
Anyway, WHY do they do this? I just don't understand it!
PS don't think I am an idiot.. just because I am interested in Ancient Egypt doesn't mean that raising two kids and a husband leaves me much time to actually study the subject

It's like that because Upper Egypt is higher ground and Lower Egypt is lower. That's why the Nile flows North.

Hi Mary500, the reason why in Egypt North is south and South is North is because of the way the Nile flows. It flows from central Africa, north to the Mediterranean Sea. Another way of looking at this is that Upper Egypt, is at a higher elevation, than Lower Egypt, thus the Nile flows south to the north.
i hope this helps!

Thanks! That is what I thought.. but it still is confusing.. when they say "Upper Egypt.. I automatically think North one of these days maybe my brain will realize the diff.

It can be terribly confusing, Mary500. In part I think it's because we are used to North being "up" on a map, and South being "down". Try this--it helped me when I received a map of Egypt. I hung it up-side down on the wall! Then, what I thought of as the North (it was the South on a map!) was Upper Egypt! The only problem was that when I was searching for a town, I had to stand on my head!

I was confused too until my sister told me that the Nile is the reason why they're named Lower and Upper Egypt.

Easy way to remember is that the Nile flows the the Med Sea and come from down.. so if u remember is comes from mountains and heads towards the sea u can remember up n down.. or at least that worked for me

I remeber it because it is odd , so it is easy to remember.

I just know it now. I dont remember how I remembered it.

well, there also two different pharoahs, one of uppper eygpt and the other of lower eygpt