Dbq Essay On Ancient Egypt

550 Words2 Pages

Was it a gift or a curse? The Nile is the world's longest river at 4,160 miles. Of that total, approximately 660 to 700 miles of the Nile are actually in Egypt. It is one of the four most important river civilizations in the world. Land in Egypt was called Black Land (representing life) and Red Land (representing danger). For Egyptians, the Nile meant the difference between life and death. Today, we know that the Nile influenced ancient Egypt in many areas of life such as providing food, shelter and faith to the people. Specific areas dealing with settlement location, agricultural cycle, jobs, trade, transportation and spiritual beliefs will prove the case.
One area influenced by the Nile was settlement location. Egyptians settled all along …show more content…

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.
Finally, the Nile influenced spiritual beliefs. Egyptians believed that the Nile would provide for them even in the afterlife (Doc D). The Nile was reflected in bottom panel of the tomb painting like the one of paradise called Field of Reeds. If it did not exist, there would be nothing to draw in the paintings – no water, the crops, no people, the boat rides. Egyptians sang hymn of praise and thanks to the Nile (Doc E). The hymn shows that Egyptians worshipped the river and believed it had the power to bring happiness or sorrow. The people knew that there was a strong connection between the river and their

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Gilgamesh Epic, Nile-Documents, And Hymn

    1771 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Nile River Shaped Ancient Egypt Research Paper

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to document C, some of the goods that were transported using the Nile consisted of religious artifacts such as statues with mysterious hieroglyphic symbols and many rocks that were used to build the great pyramids of Giza. So besides the Nile being a regular trade route, it became a religious trade route as well. However, a major part of the religion of the Egyptians was the belief in the afterlife. The afterlife was actually a paradise that is often referred to as the “Field of Reeds.” (Document D) In many tomb paintings, the picture of the Field of Reeds is illustrated with the Nile River making up the entire border of the painting. Consequently, the Nile was believed to be a part of heaven, which made it a very significant resource. Document E shows that the Egyptians even wrote hymns to the Nile, praising and honoring it for exultating their land and bring the people and children

    Read More

  • How The Nile Shaped Ancient Egypt

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    Finally, the last ways that the Nile shaped Ancient Egypt was through Spiritual Life. In document D, the illustration and document E, the song, they had a religious song for the Nile and they painted pictures and hieroglyphics on the tombs. They worshiped gods and Ra was one of them. People based everything on the Nile and if there was no Nile River then there wouldn't be a civilization in Egypt. The Nile was very important. Indeed, spiritual life was an important part in shaping Ancient

    Read More

  • How Did The Nile River Influence Egypt

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    he Nile River was an important body of water to the Ancient Egyptians. This is because the Nile was a vital part of their everyday routine. This included things from bathing to drinking water since the Nile was right there for them to access. The Nile shaped and altered the Ancient Egyptians life style in different ways. The Nile shaped the Egyptians lifestyle by choosing their home placement, developing their religion, and being their source of transportation as well as developing their logical skills in building transportation and other objects.

    Read More

  • The Nile River's Impact On Ancient Egypt

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Geography Of Ancient Egypt

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Agriculture- farming in Egypt was completely depended on the Nile River. If you were to go a couple miles farther away from the Nile River you would see nothing but bone dry desert so the Nile was very important to the Egyptians. Flooding season lasted from June to September, depositing a layer of silt beside the river. After the flooding season was over growing season lasted from October to February Egypt had very little rain fall so farmers made canals and ditches to the field.

    Read More

  • Ap Human Geography Research Paper

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    ​The Nile River has been very important for the Egyptian and Nubian civilization. The Nile River was important for Egyptian agriculture and transportation. The Egyptian was able to use the Nile to bring water to their crops. This system is call irrigation. Because of irrigation, they were able to grow crops such as papyrus, which was then use to write and record information. Another way the Nile River was use for

    Read More

  • Ancient Nile Geography Essay

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    They went by river using boats, and dependent on the direction they were traveling they needed to use a different style boat. The Nile River flowed south to north because northern Egypt had a lower elevation than southern Egypt. When a boat was traveling upstream, or against the current smaller boats were used to pull larger boats. When boats were traveling downstream, with the current, they typically went with just oars, and no smaller boats pulling them along (Document C). Food was probably one of the main items being pulled by the tugboats and sailboats, along with popular trade items. One of the trade items could include silk. The boats went four knots during flood season and even slower the rest of the year (Document C). Given that the Nile River is the world’s longest river traveling from one city to another and back at such a slow speed would have taken a long time, and was likely not an occupation that only occurred during the flood season. The Nile River itself, again contributed to the ways of life in Ancient Egypt, as a source of transportation from one location to another.

    Read More

  • How Did The Nile Shaped Ancient Egypt

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Nile is the longest river in the world and helped shape Ancient Egypt in three ways. The Nile is 4,258 miles long and was the key to flourishing the ancient civilization, Egypt. Long ago in its early days Egypt was two separate kingdoms to the south was Upper Egypt and to the North was Lower Egypt where the Nile Flowed into the delta and drained into the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptians referred to the fertile lands and/or the flood plains, as the Black Land which means land of life and the desert as the Red Land which means land of danger. Even though the Nile had such an impact on Egypt they didn't know where it came from or in this case where the source of water was. Now we know the Blue Nile that begins in Lake Tana, and the White Nile that begins in Lake Victoria are the sources of the Nile.

    Read More

  • How Did Egypt Contribute To The Nile River Civilization

    65 Words  | 1 Pages

    The gift of the Nile was when the Nile river would flood into Egypt which would renew the soil and make the ground farmable. This contributed to the Nile river civilization because it allowed those people who lived by the Nile to farm and keep a steady source of food. This is how Egypt was able to form one of the First Nations in

    Read More

  • The Nile River-Egypt

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Importance of the Nile to Ancient Egypt

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...el. This caused the building of boats from resources found along the rivers edge. This made travel easier for the Egyptians and opened up more trade with other civilizations. From all these gifts, the ancient Egyptians created a god for the river. So not only did the Nile River provide the resources to sustain life but it also provided a religious belief system. This gave the Egyptians something to believe in and work towards in their life. The Nile River is the reason ancient Egyptians survived. It provided everything for the families within the community. The river is the only way large civilizations could survive the dry desert climate. Without the Nile, Egypt would be a barren desert with little civilization. There development of Egypt would have been much smaller if the Nile did not exist. This shows just how significant the Nile River was to ancient Egyptians.

    Read More

  • Ancient Egypt Essay

    1833 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before our modern day obsession with posting to internet walls and worshiping our pets, an ancient civilization nestled on the banks of the Nile River was doing the exact same thing. Except that civilization was over 6,000 years ago. That civilization was Egypt.

    Read More

  • Egypt: The Gift Of The Nile

    835 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another way Egypt can be called the gift of the Nile is because they believed that there many gods had control over the river. For example they believed that the water that flows in the Nile comes from the mouth of their most powerful god Ra. They also believed that certain animals such as cats, jackals and ibises were actually gods in disguise watching over them so these animals were sacred to the people and mummified after death . In fact it was

    Read More

  • Impact On Ancient Egyptian Civilization

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Nile River had great influence on Ancient Egyptian culture. The Nile is the longest river in the world, that is located in Africa, was the source of livelihood for the ancient Egyptians as it was used for trade and hunting, as well as, drinking and fishing. It was also used for bathing and other hygiene purposes. It was the source of Ancient Egypt’s wealth, treasures, and the greatest arteries supplied the land with blessings and drown ancient Egyptians in various graces through the ages as the emitter of life in Egypt and the source of its existence, because it watered ancient Egyptian’s lands. The Nile had the greatest impact on timeless civilization that originated on it in the past ages, the Nile held oldest civilization immortalized in history. Ancient Egyptians could not have survived without the Nile River, which in essence, inspired their way of living, “The country’s verdant green fields and bountiful food resources depended on the fertile soil of the Nile flood plain” (Silverman 12). In turn, many ancient

    Read More

More about Dbq Essay On Ancient Egypt

Open Document