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Ancient Egypt a very short introduction
The importance of Nile to Egypt
The rise and fall of Egypt civilization
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Recommended: Ancient Egypt a very short introduction
Egypt only exists today because of one of the most marvelous gifts of nature, the Nile river. It has been said that Egypt is really a gift of the Nile. Even the Ancient Egyptians believed and understood this fact. If it wasn’t for the Nile, there would be no Egypt today.
The Nile was the creator of Egypt and at the same time the destroyer of Egypt. The annual flooding of the Nile, so crucial to the survival of Egypt and her people also brought destruction to the land.
When any tourist goes to Egypt today they are overwhelmed and in awe of such a civilisation and in awe of the fact that the
Nile created the land. The Ancient Historian Herodotus from Ancient Greece was most perplexed by the fact that the Nile was the back bone of the Ancient
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It was the communication system of the nation, its only means of survival for the country- in other words its life blood. As it has been stated before, without the Nile there would be no Egypt.
The Nile was a creature of habit; it rose in the summer and was the lowest in the winter. It was this cycle of life the Nile had that enabled the development of the nation and its survival.
The fact that the Nile was a creature of habit lies in its origin. The Nile is made up of two rivers, one called the Blue Nile and the other the White Nile. In the summer when the water level went up, this was the inundation, the Ancient Egyptian word for summer was Akhet which means when translated, inundation.
The inundation, which was so vital to Egypt, was caused by a huge volume of water in Central Sudan rushing into to the White Nile raising its level while the monsoon rains in Ethiopia’s highlands, the home of the Blue Nile flooded the blue water.
With these two rivers, the white and blue Nile both flooding and feeding into the Nile river caused the Nile to burst its banks and flood, while flooding of this kind is destructive it also brought along with it one very precious commodities that the Egyptians need for a successful agricultural year,
In document B, the chart and document C, the illustration, people had seasons based on the Nile and farming. In document B it states, “ Crops in the lower Nile harvested and sent to market.” So therefore, without the Nile crops wouldn't grow. Also, people used the Nile for transportation. They had a flood season, a growing season, and a harvest season. If the Nile flooded more than 30 feet, it would flood the villages and if it flooded under 25 feet then it wouldn't be enough water. They transported food, tombs, and obelisks on large barges. Not only did the Nile shape Ancient Egypt through economics but also spiritual life.
One of the ways that the Nile shaped Egypt was through economy. According to document A, the Nile’s location was perfect for trade and interaction with other nearby ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia and the Indus
The Egyptian civilization relied on the Nile in many ways. The Nile had annual floods which made the land better for growing food; the Egyptians predicted these floods and used it to create bigger harvest and a surplus of food.
Finally, the Nile provided Egypt with a multiplicity of religious beliefs. For example, the rise and fall of the water level led the Egyptians to witness the cycles of birth, death, and re-birth. They believed that the gods controlled the Nile, so this led the river to becoming one of the many things they worshipped. The god of the Nile was known as “Hapi” and the Egyptians thought he provided them with water and fertilization. Furthermore, the belief of an afterlife came from the Nile. They believed that after death they would ride an “underneath” version of the Nile to their afterlife. The river not only impacted people on a physical level, but on a personal level.
The Egyptians had three four-month seasons (Doc B). The seasons were flooding (Akhet), planting (Peret) and harvesting (Shemu). The Nile set the Egyptian calendar and the agricultural cycle for farmers’ work activity and crop growth. Several occupations depended on the Nile River (Doc C). Sailors, boat builders, fishermen and farmers depended on the river transport to market crops and make money. The Egyptians used sailboats, barges and tugs for transportation and trade (Doc C). The Nile was like the superhighway of ancient Egypt. It helped them move crops and goods up and down the river and sell beyond their local market. Nothing could happen without the Nile.
The Nile greatly impacted Ancient Egypt and its civilization. The Nile was surrounded by deserts which helped keep Ancient Egyptians safe from outside invasions. They had flood seasons which provided them with food. Lastly, they had the river, which served as a means of transportation for them. The geography and seasons of the Nile influenced Ancient Egypt, and without these three key factors, or with different ones, Ancient Egypt and its civiliazation would have been very different than it is.
Conscious of the geographical region, Egyptians settled around the Nile, as the Nile provided substance (agriculture, irrigation, trading routes, etc.). The Egyptians noticed that the Nile would flood regularly, and exploited this natural flooding by building an irrigation system to support their agriculture, as well as their society. “Hymn to the Nile” depicts this prosperous age of agriculture, “Lord of the fish, during the inundation, no bird alights on the crops. You create the grain, you bring forth the barley, assuring perpetuity to the temples.” ("Ancient History Sourcebook: Hymn to the Nile, c. 2100 BCE."). However, the Nile might have contributed to the eventual collapse of ancient Old Kingdom Egyptian civilization. The Nile partially destroyed the society that it had once nurtured. A series of low or high floods over the course of a few years immensely impacted their agriculture, which in turn created epidemics of famine and civil unrest. The Egyptian civilization eventually prospered once more, only centuries later and with new social
"All of Egypt is the gift of the Nile." It was the Greek historian Herodotus who made that observation. The remarkable benefits of the Nile are clear to everyone, but through history he was the first to talk about it and consider its fascination. Through history, the Nile played a major role in the building of civilizations. The first civilizations to appear in history started on a river valley or in a place where resources are numerous and example of these are in India where Indus river is found and Tigris where Euphrates is found and many other places (cradles of civilization).
In Egypt, the Nile River overflowed its banks annually, creating fertile, mineral-rich soil. The yearly rise of the Nile in Egypt was gentle and predictable. The Egyptian’s found security in the Nile’s 365-day cycle of inundation and Egypt’s perimeter of sea and desert
The flooding surges of the land, and leaves behind water for the people, and fertile land, which can be used for agriculture. The impact the Nile has on Egypt during the ancient times and present are consierably apparent. The influence the Nile has is so extensive, that even the speech is transposed. For example, "To go north" in the Egyption language is the same as, "to go down stream"; "to go south" the same as "to go upstream." Also, the term for a "foreign country" in Egypt would be used as "highland" or "desert", because the only mountains or deserts would be far away, and foreign to them. The Nile certainly had an exceptional influence on Egypts, both lifestyle and thinking.The Nile also forced a change on the political system and ruling in Egypt.
The Nile River is arguably one of the most important water sources in the world and has an extremely rich history dating back thousands of years. Without the Nile, the ancient Egyptian civilization would have never existed. Egypt is basically a whole lot of sand and not much else, except they have the Nile River flowing through it, on it’s way to the Mediterranean sea. The ancient Egyptians lived along the Nile River and it provided them with abundant water, food (fish) and the opportunity to develop agriculture along it’s banks. The Nile River was also used for transportation and trade with other regions because land travel was more difficult than floating on the river. The Ancient Egyptians were at the mercy of the seasonal flooding and droughts but learned to work within the natural system of the River and weather cycles (Carnegie Museum of Natural History). Modern people, however were more interested in conquering nature, rather than living in harmony with it.
When the Nile is overflowing, it floods the Delta and the lands called Libyan and Arabian, for a distance of a journey of two days from both banks in places, and sometimes, sometimes less. I could not learn anything about its nature, neither from the priests nor from anyone else. I was curious to learn why the Nile is flooding for a hundred days from the summer solstice; and when this time is passed, sinks again, and the river is low during the whole winter until the summer solstice again.
Egypt is known as the gift of the Nile, but why well that is what this paper is all about. For starters Egypt would not be the place it is today without the Nile it would be reduced to a dry uninhabitable desert. The Nile provides water to the entire land and as we all know water is a necessity for all life to exist. Another thing that the Nile supplies is silt, this silt is full of nutrients that makes farming not only possible but actually a lot easier than it is here in the states . The Nile also makes trade with nearby cities and towns possible so supplies are never short.
Until today, architects and artists, draw inspiration and understanding from Ancient Egyptian art and architecture as they mastered it. The pyramids are masterpieces that bring wonders to other civilizations; they are marvel of human engineering and constructions. Also, the modern world has benefited greatly from the agricultural and irrigation techniques used by ancient Egyptians in the Nile Valley. Their success of their civilization depended heavily on their religious beliefs as it is what dominated and directed their lifestyle. To conclude, Ancient Egypt left an extraordinary imprint on the world today and many countries across the world value and houses their artifacts. The civilization of the ancient Egyptians was not civilized slip at the age of time. Ancient Egyptians civilization was a unique cultural characteristics and achievements that were authenticity. Ancient Egypt civilization has its own credibility among all civilizations, making Egypt the Mother of the World. Ancient Egypt originated in the valley, and the Nile Delta, where ancient Egyptians lived. Ancient Egypt’s cultural aspect refers to the language, worship, customs, organization to their lives, the life management, administrative affairs, their conception of the nature around them, and their dealings with their
The Nile played an important role in the life of the ancient Egyptians. It makes life in the deserts of Egypt possible. It provided drinking water, a source of irrigation for crops, and most importantly the fertile soil used to grow crops. Without the Nile River it would have been difficult for Egyptian civilizations to survive. The Nile provided the crucial resources needed by a growing civilization. It caused all the ancient Egyptian communities to develop alongside the river. It also created a way of transportation of goods and people. This caused the development of boats and other water traveling methods.