Nile River and Ancient Egypt

Nile River and Ancient Egypt

The Nile River Ancient Egypt

The Nile River is the "blood life and backbone" of the Egyptian way of life. The river prevented this area in northeast Africa from being just a continuation of the wasteland known as the Sahara Desert (Ashcroft, NDI). This paper will explore the environmental and geographical features that influenced the political and social stricture of Ancient Egypt.

In ancient Egypt the land could be divided into types, the black land and the red land. The black land was the fertile land on the banks of the Nile. This land was used for agriculture, and was the only land with tillable soil because a rich layer of black silt was deposited there each year after the Nile flooded. The barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides was the red land. These deserts provided a layer of insulation from neighboring countries and invading armies and were also a source of precious metals and semi-precious stones.

The people of Ancient Egypt lived in an area that was naturally isolated from aggressors. The vast Sahara desert to the west, the mountains of eastern desert and the Red Sea to the west, the narrow coastline of the Mediterranean Sea alone with the marshy river delta to the north and the granite rocks of the Cataracts to the south gave the Egyptians time to develop a unique culture, religion and political state.

The land of ancient Egypt was divided into two areas, Upper Egypt, the narrow valley of the Nile south of Memphis down to Abu on the First Cataract, was called ta-shema. The king of this region wore a white conical crown and was protected by the goddess Nekhbet. Lower Egypt contained the Delta area and was called ta-mehu. The king of Lower Egypt wore a red crown and was protected by the goddess Wadjet. The pharaoh was seen as the king of the two lands and wore a crown that can be described as a combination of the white and red crowns (Lloyd, 2010).

The Nile River flows 3,470 miles (5,584 km) and is the longest river in the world. The Nile is fed by Lake Victoria, the second largest body freshwater body in the world. This river provided reliable and predictable water supplies that allowed for agriculture and commercial settlements to develop. Ancient Egyptians learned the flooding of the Nile predictably occurred each year between June and September. They learned to partially control this event by means of irrigation.

The Egyptians would prepare for the annual flooding by safely removing anything of value from the banks of the river and then wait for the waters to recede. The floods brought good rich soil up onto the land good for growing barley and other grains. After the water level went back down they would quickly plant their new crops (Challen, 2005). Animal husbandry was also a key to successful farming. The Egyptians domesticated cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and poultry. Cattle and donkeys were used for pulling plows as well as threshing. Cattle were also used for milk and meat while sheep and goats provided wool, milk, and meat and helped with the trampling of seeds. Ducks, geese, and pigeons were also kept (Ashcroft, NDI). Famine resulted during years of inadequate or surplus flooding and to spiritually mitigate this problem the Egyptians paid homage to Hapy, the Nile flood god.