Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The role of Nile in ancient Egypt
The role of Nile in ancient Egypt
The role of Nile in ancient Egypt
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Although, the Nile is just a river in Africa, it was practically god-like to the Ancient Egyptians. Second to the pharaoh, the Nile controlled the life of the Egyptians. They depended on the Nile to survive as it gave them a fresh source of water, food, and fertile soil for farming. Beyond the Nile changing everything for one of the greatest civilizations just by being there, there are many interesting unknown facts about how it’s geography, climate, and animals, changed the Egyptians lifestyles. There are even many common myths and stories. One common myth or misconception is that during the time of the Hebrews the Nile River turned into blood, but in reality that did not happen. The Nile River was the most important feature in the Ancient Egyptians lifestyle.
The most important part of the Nile River is its
…show more content…
Most Egyptian cities lie on the banks of the river only because it was the one true source and Ancient Egyptians worshipped it. One of many minor things it did for the Ancient Egyptians was provided the farmers a source of drinking water and irrigation. The annual flooding was referred to as the "Arrival of Hapi" and was celebrated with great festivals and river processions to Hapi, the river god. The annual flooding was of such importance that the Egyptians of Lower and Upper Egypt based their lives around its yearly cycle: Akhet was the time of the flood (June - September), Peret was the sowing time (October - January), and Shemu was the harvest time (February - May). The Nile Valley in the south of Egypt is home to the Valley of the Kings and Queens, the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the magnificent temples dedicated to the gods of the ancient Egyptians. The Nile River was also believed to be the bridge to the afterlife. East was a place of new beginnings (heaven) while the west was considered the place of death (hell) . The belief that west represented death
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
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.
The first plague turned the Nile into blood. Doing this all the fish died from the blood, and the river started to stink. The Egyptian would loathe drinking from the river. Every water source they had turned to blood, every stream, river, pond, pools of water, buckets of wood, and pitchers of stone. The Nile turned to blood was judgment against the Egyptian God, Apis, who was the gold of the Nile. The Egyptian magicians could also convert water to blood. His magicians could not reconvert the blood into water, and the Egyptian people had to dig for water for seven days.
Do you know the name of the mighty, 4,160-mile-long river that runs through eastern Africa? If you guessed the Nile, then yes, you are correct. But other than setting the record of being the longest natural river in the world, the Nile has been of great importance to the people of Ancient Egypt. In fact, without the Nile River, Ancient Egypt as we know it today would never have existed! Therefore, the Nile River shaped life in Ancient Egypt through economy, religion, and government.
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
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.
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.
"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).
Approximately 5500 years ago four of the worlds' most prestigious ancient river civilizations had emerged. Our world has been left in astonishment and awe wondering how these civilizations were developed. Egypt and Mesopotamia were the first ancient river civilizations to create cities and their own ways of living. Society, geography, and religion played an enormous role in the development of the ancient cities. Although there is evidence of early Sumerian contact with the Egyptians, Egypt's civilization was largely self-generated and its history and cultural patterns differed from Mesopotamia.
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.
...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.
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.
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 is the longest river in the world which is located in Africa. It spans itself from Lake Victoria in east central Africa to Egypt. It flows generally north through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, for an approximate distance of 5,584 km From its remotest headstream, the Luvironza River in Burundi, the river is 6,695 km long. The river basin has an area of about 3,350,000 sq km. Its average discharge is 3.1 million litres per second. The lower course of the river in Egypt has become centrally important to tourism, linking as it does to all the major sites of Ancient Egypt.
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