Ronja Virtanen 15IBB
The importance of Nile river in the agriculture of ancient Egypt
In the Ancient Egypt lives of thousands was depended on the river Nile. It gave Egyptians an opportunity to harvest in the dry environment because of the annual inundations. Later it gave them a way to transport from village to another and by that, an opportunity to rule economy and political issues. The Egyptians learned to, not how to control the river, but how to live with the influential source of life by observing nature. The Nile river was the main reason Ancient Egypt ever grew so powerful as a civilization because it helped the Egyptians harvest vital plants. It’s been stated many times; probably the first time was by a Greek historian Herodotus, who said that “Egypt is the gift of Nile” referring to the special resources of the river. Probably the most important thing for ancient harvesting were the annual floods of Nile. It was a matter of significance to it made it possible to harvest by the
…show more content…
Water would be stored into pools of water in years there was loads of it, just in case the next year they would not have the same luck. When there was a very low flood, the Egyptians would pump the water from the Nile to go up the manmade canals that would take the water to the harvestings. Moreover, there would be storage houses to store grain. When boats came to use people would bring grain to a “Royal storehouse” as a backup plan to deal with sudden loss of harvestings. When a certain area needed food very badly, some would be sent to them by a boat. For the years of absolutely high inundation, the clever Egyptians would realise the upcoming danger from uncommonly low water in the river. When you could cross the river by foot it was time for some preparations. The Egyptians built and strengthened levees to prevent water from flooding excessively over them and from causing negative
The Egyptians were very lucky to have the Nile River because without it they wouldn’t be able to survive. The Nile shaped Egypt by granting them with almost everything they needed. Where the Nileś source came from may have been a riddle to them but we know that came from Lake Tana which is the branch called the Blue Nile and from Lake Victoria which is the other branch called the White Nile. Egypt has been around for five thousand years and for all of those five thousand years the Nile River helped the Egyptians survive in Egypt. The Nile River shaped Ancient Egypt by setting a calendar, providing food and water,
The Nile was the source of everything in Ancient Egypt. Early people built their lives around a river, eventually developing into Ancient Egypt. The Nile did not shape Ancient Egypt literally, but culturally. The Nile grew Egypt’s crops, created its traditions, making jobs, giving life to and protecting all.
Evidence of this is in documents both D and E. If you look at document E, a hymn or spiritual song about the Nile states that people hailed to the Nile. In the analysis of the document E Greek Historian, Herodotus wrote that, “Egypt…is, so to speak, the gift of the Nile.” In document D the Nile influenced some tomb paintings. For example on page 65, the Nile borders the tomb painting and the plants wouldn’t be there without the Nile. Without the Nile, none of this would have been possible. This is because the sun god, Ra, provided fields and crops which could only be watered by the Nile, they hail to. The Nile was the support and backbone of all parts of Egyptian life. An additional way the Nile shaped ancient Egypt was population and settlement. Evidence of this can be found in document A. If you look at the picture in document A, people wanted to live near the Nile for a water source. When more and more people came and settled, the people near the Nile became civilized with a growing population. The people could have lived sporadically throughout Egypt. The reason that the Nile was so important to Egypt in this area was because it allowed people to be able to trade and have a drinking source. It let civilizations form and settle. If the Nile wasn’t there nobody would have been able to live
The Nile influenced Ancient Egypt in many ways. The first way is the flooding cycle. In paragraph six in,”How did the Nile shape Ancient Egypt it says”,”The flooding cycle determined the planting season for farmers. When it was planting season they grew flax for producing fine linen. They also harvested papyrus.
I believe ancient Egypt was “the gift of the Nile River” because of its location in the Sahara desert, and because of its dry location. The river provided water and soil which irrigated the Nile Delta. All farmers knew when it would flood, and prepare their fields. Ancient Egypt had very little contact with surrounding civilization for many centuries because of isolation. This kept foreign ideas and influences from disrupting their cultural balance and they were free of foreign invasion through most of their history.
The Nile flood cycle was broken up into three different seasons. The first was Akhet (flood season), which happened mid-June to mid-October. During this time, the Nile flooded and land was fertilized. Farmers had to find other means of work during this time, such as repairing canals, or working in the quarries. The second season was Peret (planting & growing season), which happened mid-October to mid-February. During this time the flooding stopped, and crops were planted and tended to. The final season was Shemu (harvest season), which happened mid-February to mid-June. During this time, crops in the Lower Nile were harvested and sent to the market. The lives of Ancient Egyptians depended on the success of the flood cycle. If one year, there was a “bad Nile,” the lives of Ancient Egyptians were put at risk. Too little water could cause the soil to be dry, which would cause a bad harvest. On the other hand, too much water can cause the soil to have excess water, which could affect the growth of the crops. The Nile River decided the fate of the Ancient Egyptians. Understanding the flood cycle was imperative to the success of Ancient
The Nile River was the life force of ancient Egypt. People from all over the region immigrated to the area for its irrigation waters and rich silt deposits. The geography of the region played a huge role in the way the inhabitants and civilization in general was formed. The main core of Egypt covered 386, 560 square miles, of which only 11, 720 were cultivable (Tignor et al., Worlds Together, 62). The Nile differed itself specifically from the Tigris and Euphrates in that its waters did not irrigate or fertilize nearly as well but it did create green belts along the water. This created a society that flourished along the river. The Nile unlike Mesopotamia did not have a bountiful borderland but did have a desert rich in materials. The Niles predictability as the source of life and abundance shaped the character of the people and their culture. (Tignor et al., Worlds Together, 63). The Nile was peaceful and calm unlike the vicious Tigris And Euphrates Rivers. Egypt with its natural borders, which included the Mediterranean Sea, Deserts, and Large Waterfalls, was very isolated. This helped to achieve
The Nile was a great river that provided good resources enabling the people of Egypt to survive without
Just as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers shaped the worldview of early Mesopotamians, The Nile shaped the world view of the Egyptians. The Nile River was easily navigated and fairly temperate, which made for one of the greatest agricultural regions in the world at that time. Like clockwork, each year the Nile River would flood the land, leaving behind nutrient-rich silt that provided a bountiful harvest the following season. Due to the agricultural success of the land that followed the Nile the majority of Egyptians would settle close to it shores. The Nile Rivers benevolent waters also allowed the Egyptians to transport its most valuable resources to the southern regions of Africa, especially the divine metal that had been endowed by the gods to Egypt's elite. Even today the Egyptians are considered to be the pioneers of water management.
Rivers can help develop different civilizations such as the Nile River. This great river measures thirty five hundred miles through many different countries (Orlin, 2010). The Nile helped to bring life, security and dictated how the people planned activities throughout the year. For example, the farmers would seed the land after the Nile would start swell and then recede to its normal banks (Orlin, 2010). This helped the seedlings to grow and then produce bountiful harvest. The Nile provided security for the Egyptian people by allowing the reeds and natural grasses around the bank of the river (Orlin, 2010). This would allow any enemy that wanted to attack to not
The nile helped Egypt with farming because when it flooded it gave fertilized silt to start growing crops. In document B “Fields in the nile floodplain covered in water and fertilized by a new batch of of silt .Time when many farmers worked off their public labor tax doing jobs like canal repairing.” This explains that after it flooded a very fertilized silt was left and it helped the farmers plant and make food for Egypt. The Egyptians also wrote hymns to the Nile. In document E it says, “Come to keep the land alive who floods the fields
Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian agricultural lives were highly differentiated due to their contrasting geographical situations, and also differences in technological processes and developments. Only a small area of Egyptian land (the Delta and Nile Valley) was fertile during the annual inundation of the river Nile. Moreover, harsh natural circumstances created a famine risk for the entire population, thus restricting the freedom to decide for a common citizen. To illustrate, an uneven spillage of the river Nile, when there were insufficient water resources for the agriculture or floods threatening corps, required a unified, or communal, water regulation and distributional system. So, a
The civilization of Ancient Egypt was one of the earliest in history one of the things that most help the Ancient egyptians was the Nile river.The Nile river is located in egypt and was a huge benefit to the Ancient Egyptians (Transportation,Water,Food),. Today i am going to explain why that is.
Egypt is the most iconic of the river valley civilizations and it is also one of the most significant civilizations of all. The trade mark of Egypt is the Nile River. It was the most Important part of the geography. The predictable and cyclical flooding of the Nile was what helped agriculture thrive in Egypt. Agriculture emerged in Egypt by 5,000 BCE. The flooding of the river acted as a perfect irrigation system for plants and silt that cam from the river was nutrient rich and helped grow plants at a great scale. Egyptian agriculture was so successful that there was a great surplus of food.
One of the key areas that the Nile River helped develop in ancient Egypt was agriculture. The Nile River allowed for the Ancient Egyptians the ability to grow their own crops. The predictable annual flooding allowed for ancient Egypt to farm. In the article Sustainable Agriculture in Ancient Egypt, the author J. Donald Hughes states that “The sustainability of Egyptian agriculture was