Why Is Egypt Called The Gift Of The Nile
Why Is Egypt Called The Gift Of The Nile - When the Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the land of ancient Egypt was "given by rivers," he was referring to the Nile River, whose waters were essential to the rise of one of the world's earliest great civilizations. The Nile River, which flows north for 4,160 miles from east-central Africa to the Mediterranean, provided ancient Egypt with fertile land and water for irrigation, as well as a means of transporting materials for construction projects.
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Why Is Egypt Called The Gift Of The Nile
Its vital water allowed cities to grow in the middle of the desert. To benefit from the Nile, the people living along its banks must know how to deal with the river's annual floods. They also developed new skills and technologies, from agriculture to boats and ships.
The Nile also played a role in the construction of the pyramids, a great wonder that is one of the most recognizable reminders of their civilization. Beyond practical matters, the vast river had a profound effect on the ancient Egyptians' view of themselves and their world, and shaped their religion and culture.
The Nile is "a critical lifeline that really brings life to the desert," as Lisa Saladino Haney, assistant curator of Egypt at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, wrote on the museum's website. "Without the Nile, there would be no Egypt," the Egyptologist wrote in his 2012 book, The Nile.
The Nile Was A Source Of Rich Farmland
The modern name of the Nile comes from Nelios, the Greek word for river valley. But the ancient Egyptians called it Ar or Aur, which means "black," referring to the rich, dark sediment brought by the waters of the Nile from the Horn of Africa in the north and deposited in Egypt when the river floods each year at the end of the year.
summer. This tide of water and nutrients turned the Nile Valley into productive farmland, and allowed Egyptian civilization to flourish in the middle of the desert. The thick layers of clay in the Nile Valley "transformed what might have been a geological curiosity, a version of the Grand Canyon, into a densely populated agricultural country," explains Barry J. Kemp in Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization.
The Nile was a focal point for the ancient Egyptians whose calendar began the year with the first month of the flood. Egyptian religion even honored the god of floods and fertility, Hapy, who was depicted as a fat man with blue or green skin.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ancient Egyptian farmers were one of the first groups to practice large-scale agriculture, growing food crops such as wheat and barley, as well as industrial crops such as hemp to make clothing. To make the most of the Nile's water, ancient Egyptian farmers developed a system called basin irrigation.
The River Served As A Vital Transportation Route
They built a network of earth banks to form basins, and dug channels to direct floodwater into the basin, where it would sit for months until the soil was full and ready for planting. "It is certainly a challenge if the land where you build houses and grow food will be flooded by the river every August and September, just like the Nile before the Aswan High Dam," said Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr.
retired Penn State University professor of Middle Eastern history and author of A Brief History of Egypt. "Building dams, channels and basins to transfer and store some of the Nile's water required ingenuity and probably a lot of trial-and-error for the ancient Egyptians." To predict whether they were facing dangerous floods or low water levels that could cause poor harvests, the ancient Egyptians created nilometers - stones with markings indicating the water level.
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In addition to fostering agriculture, the Nile River provided ancient Egypt with an important transportation route. As a result, they became skilled boat and ship builders who built large wooden craft with sails and oars, which could travel longer distances, and small boats made of papyrus reeds attached to wooden frames.
Artwork from the Old Kingdom, which dates from 2686 to 2181 BC, depicts boats carrying cattle, vegetables, fish, bread and wood. Boats were so important to the Egyptians that they buried their dead kings and officials in sometimes well-built boats that could be used to travel up the Nile.
The River Served As A Vital Transportation Route
The Nile influenced the way the Egyptians thought about the land they lived in, according to Haney. He divided his world into Kemet, the "black land" of the Nile Valley, where there was enough water and food for the cities. In contrast, the hot, dry region of the desert is Deshret, the "red land."
They associated the Nile Valley and desert oases with life and abundance, while the desert was associated with death and chaos. The Nile also played an important role in the creation of monumental tombs such as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Ancient papyrus diaries of officials involved in the construction of the Great Pyramid describe how workers transported large blocks of limestone in wooden boats along the Nile, and then guided the blocks through a system of canals to the site where the pyramids were built.
Patrick J. Kiger has written for GQ, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, PBS NewsHour and Military History Quarterly. He is the co-author (with Martin J. Smith) of Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America. We strive for accuracy and fairness.
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But if you see something that doesn't seem right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates content regularly to ensure completeness and accuracy. The Nile proved a great favor to Egypt. The Nile makes the land fertile. Egyptian farmers can plant crops in the same fields every year.
The Nile Valley As Part Of Identity
The Nile is also a highway and facilitates navigation. This chapter promotes trade and commerce within the country as well as with other countries in the world. Of course, Egypt is called the 'Gift of the Nile.' The geography of ancient Egypt was dominated, as it is today, by a combination of lack of rain and the Nile River.
The Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the "gift of the Nile", as the kingdom owed its existence to the annual flooding of the Nile and the fertile mud deposits that resulted. The Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea, and there is a delta at its mouth.
The Nile River was the only reason civilization emerged in ancient Egypt. In the fourth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus reported in Histories that "Egypt was a gift from the Nile." Egypt means almost no rain, so all the water - for drinking, washing, watering and operating the water wheel - only comes from this river.
The Nile is the longest river in the world. Since the Nile's headwaters are in east-central Africa (at Lake Victoria), the river was flooded every year during the Egyptian civilization. The springs in the Ethiopian highlands will melt the snow, which will then slowly flood the rivers, and the Nile will slowly rise.
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