The Low Desert

The Nile and the Western and Eastern Desert

The third geographic feature was a strip of higher land, located on either side of the floodplain, which was not laced by the River Nile. This was the low desert, a zone of little flora. It was a place where men hunted animals such as antelope, hares, and lions. Because the broken desert was dry and could not be farmed, the Egyptians settled their cemeteries there. Through the Predynastic Period (4500-3100 B.C.), they buried the passed straight in the sands, which saved their bodies naturally. Start with the Early Dynastic Period (3100-2750 B.C.), however, the Egyptians began to wrap the deceased in tombs, losing the preservative rewards of the desert sand. Because they thought the body had to be canned to assure an afterlife, they were drawn to develop an artificial technique of preserving the body, a outgrowth we call mummification.