The High Desert

The High Desert (Eastern Desert)

The fourth geographic feature was the high desert, a barren area that was crossed only by trade caravans or organized groups searching for stone and unstructured resources, such as calcite, gold, copper, amethyst, carnelian, and diorite. Individual oases excavated in the high desert were cultivated to grow valuable crops like grapes and dates. These areas were essential links in trade with more last areas and were as well used as properties to house exiled captives.



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Egypt, the Gift of the Nile
The Low Desert

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.

Egypt, the Gift of the Nile

Egypt, the Gift of the Nile

Then, the true Egypt be the tract that we have discovered the Nile valley, with the Faiyum and the Delta the lily stalk, the bud, and the flower we can well see how it came to be said of old, that "Egypt was the gift of the river." Not that the lively Greek, who first used the construction, divined precisely the scientific truth of the matter. The figure of Herodotus saw Africa, to begin with, doubly severed from Asia by two parallel fjords, one running inland northwards from the Indian Ocean, as the Red Sea does to this day, and the other understanding inland souths from the Mediterranean Sea to an equal or greater distance! The Nile, he said, pouring itself into this latter fjord, had by degrees filled it up, and had then gone on and by further deposits turned into land a great piece of the "sea of the Greeks," as was broad from the expulsion of the shore of the Delta beyond the general coast of Africa eastward and western; and, he brought, "I am sure, for my personal part, that if the Nile should please to amuse his waters from their show bed to the Red Sea, he would fill it up and turn it into strong land in the space of 20000 years, or perchance in half that time for he is a mighty river and a most energetic one." Here, in this last expression, he is exhaustively right, though the method of the Nile's energy has been other than he reckoned. The Nile, working from its extended sources in the tropical regions, has gradually trumped itself out a deep bed in the sand and rock of the desert, which must have originally great across the whole of northern Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Having outdone itself out this bed to a depth, in places, of three hundred feet from the desert level, it has then proceeded partially to fill it up with its own deposits. Occupying, when it is at its height, the entire bed, and presenting at that time the visual aspect of a vast lake, or successiveness of lakes, it deposes every day a part of sediment over the whole space which it continues: then, cutting gradually, it leaves at the base of the hills, on both sides, or at any rate on one, a strip of land fresh dressed with mud, which gets wider daily as the waters still retire, until yards grow into furlongs, and furlongs into mis, and at last the withered stream is content with a close channel a few hundred yards in width, and results the rest of its bed to the embraces of sun and air, and, if he so wills, to the industry of man. The land thus left open is Egypt is the temporarily nude bed of the Nile, which it tames and recovers during a portion of each year, when Egypt goes away from view, save where human labour has by heaps and embankments worked artificial islands that put up their heads above the blow of waters, for the nearly part crowned with constructions.

There is one elision to this broad and wide statement. The Faiyum is no part of the natural bed of the Nile, and has not been trumped out by its energy. It is a natural imprint in the western desert, separated off from the Nile valley by a wind of limestone hills from 200 to 500 feet in height, and, separated from the natural process of man, would have been arid, treeless, and waterless. Still, it hails from the Nile all its value, all its magnificence, all its fertility. Human energy at some unlikely period inserted into the low tract through an artificial channel from the Nile, cut in some places through the rock, the life-giving fluid; and this fluid, bearing the idolized Nile sediment, has sufficed to spread fertility over the entire neighborhood, and to make the desert bloom like a garden.

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The Nile in Ancient Egypt

The Nile in Ancient Egypt

The Nile

The most great geographic hold is the Nile River itself. It was the lifeblood of ancient Egypt, and still gets life achievable in the otherwise barren desert of Egypt. The lengthiest river in the world (over 4,000 miles), the Nile is formed by the union in Khartoum, Sudan, of the "White Nile" from Victoria Lake in Uganda and the "Blue Nile" from the deals of Ethiopia. The only other fast is the Atbara, which flows into the Nile in southeastern Sudan. Between Khartoum and Aswan, the Nile has six cataracts that disrupt its course, making seafaring difficult. Between Aswan (ancient Elephantine) and the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile is clear of cataracts and was the essential means of travel for the people of ancient Egypt. Distinct types of boats, including load, passenger, funerary, and naval vases, traveled on the river. Because the Nile flows from south to north, contrary to most rivers, a boat tripping north used oars aided by the current. The hieroglyph for "to go north" was a boat without a sail. The enduring winds of Egypt blow from the north, so a boat travel south could use cruises. The hieroglyph for "to go south" was a boat with a sail.

The Nile also served as a source of food for the people of ancient Egypt. The river streamed with different types of fish, for example, catfish, mullet, bolti, and rods. Although certain species of fish were prohibited from consumption in areas of Egypt because of local superstitions, fishing was experienced as both an industry and a sport. A wide change of wild birds, admitting fourteen coinages of wild ducks and geese as well as herons, pelicans, and cranes, were hunted in the marshes along the Nile. Organized hunting down expeditions used cats to flush the birds from the marshes and then lassos, weighted ropes, bows and arrows, and throw sticks to bring them down. There were also crocodiles and hippopotamuses in the Nile, but the Egyptians hunted them only for sport. The Nile served other designs as well. It was the major source of water for bathing and drinking. Water was taken straight from the Nile or from one of the canals the Egyptians built to connect with it, although some wells did exist in towns not relocated directly on the river. Mud deposited by the Nile was used to make bricks for reconstructing houses, granaries, and enclosing walls around buildings.

The Nile was also great for farming because it left a stratum of nutrient-bearing silt when the waters of the annual inundation receded, and it also provided water for irrigation. Those gardens based around villages and country houses of the wealthy had to be watered regularly because of their position above the range of the Nile's flood waters and because of the typecasts of crops grown there (including lettuce, onion plants, figs, peas, vetch, beans, and grapes). After the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians used shadufs to bring up water from the canals to the gardens. Because the shaduf had to be worked by hand, this method acting of irrigation was very labor strong.

Without the River Nile, agriculture and, thus, life in ancient Egypt would have been unthinkable. The river was a regular and inevitable source of water. Because the flood was an event that annually revitalized the floodplain with water and new soil, it symbolized rebirth for the ancient Egyptians. The flood created a need for resurveying property lines and for dredging the canals. Because working in the domains was not possible during the months of the flood, many farmers helped to manufacture temples, royal tombs, and palaces during those times. For their functions, they were paid in food and other material commodities. The second geographic hold of Egypt was the flood plain. This was the low strip of fertile land based on either side of the Nile River that flooded during the annual deluge. Most ancient villages were based on the highest ground of this zone. In addition, most of the farming came here. The agricultural year began in September or October, when the flood subsided leaving the earth soaked and overlain with a fresh layer of black silt. The outstanding crops of ancient Egypt were emmer (a type of wheat), barley, and flax. Cattle and poultry were multiplied, not only for food but also for religious rituals.


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Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt was the long, particular strip of ancient Egypt located south of the Delta. This area is written of four topographic zones: the Nile, the floodplain, the low desert, and the high desert. The ancient Egyptians worked each zone differently.

Upper Egypt, geographical and cultural section of Egypt, generally consisting of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th simultaneous N. It thus dwells of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake Nasser (organized by the Aswan High Dam). This division also takes what some scholars term Middle Egypt (nearly from Lisht to Panopolis).

In late predynastic times, Upper Egypt constituted a political entity sort from Lower Egypt (the delta region). But Menes (flourished 2900 bce) united Upper and Lower Egypt, and each Egyptian king thereafter had as one of his royal titles “King of Upper and Lower Egypt” (“He of the Sut-Plant and the Bee”), thus meaning that he was the deified theatrical of those divisions’ fusion.

Upper Egypt

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• Aswan
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Lower Egypt

Ancient Egypt was widespread into two regions: upper and lower Egypt. Lower (north) Egypt lied of the Nile River's delta made by the river as it discharges into the Mediterranean. Today the Delta is 15000 square miles of alluvium (silt), which has been situated over the centuries by the annual inundation of the Nile. Prior to the New Kingdom (before about 1539 B.C.), this area was only thinly settled, although it was used as a shaving area for cattle. Its high water table in modern times has made archeological mining for evidence of settlements hard.

Lower Egypt

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Climate in Ancient Egypt

Egypt triumphs, more than virtually any other country, in an equable climate, an temperate temperature, and an equable productivity. The summers, no doubt, are hot, especially in the south, and an casual sirocco produces intense irritation while it lasts. But the cool Etesian wind, sucking from the north through almost all the summer-time, tempers the zeal of the sun's rays even in the hottest season of the year; and during the remaining months, from October to April, the climate is plainly delightful. Egypt has been said to have but two seasons, spring and summer. Spring reigns from October into May-crops spring up, flowers bloom, soft zephyrs fan the nerve, when it is mid-winter in Europe; by February the fruit-trees are in full blossom; the crops set out to ripen in March, and are drawn by the end of April; snow and freeze are wholly obscure at any time; storm, fog, and even rain are rare. A bright, lucid air rests upon the entire scene. There is no moisture in the air, no cloud in the sky; no mist-veils the aloofness. One day follows another, every the counterpart of the leading; until at length spring retires to make room for summer, and a fiercer light, a hotter sun, a longer day, show that the most enjoyable break of the year is got by.

In general, there is fair weather in Egypt passim the year, but there are noted temperature conflicts between seasons and between various parts of the country. The climate is qualified by a two-season year: a relatively modern winter from November to April and a dry, close summer from May to October. In the Delta in the north, the highest regular temperature in the middle of winter is 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and in the fastest season 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It is about 10 points hotter in southern Egypt. Rain in the Nile Valley is negligible, no more than 100 to 200 millimetres (4 to 8 inches) per year in the Delta.

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Geology of Ancient Egypt

Geology of Ancient Egypt

The geology of ancient Egypt is simple. The total flat country is alluvial. The mounds on either side are, in the north, limestone, in the central part sandstone, and in the southern granite and syenite. The granitic establishment begins between the 24 and 25 duplicates, but occasional masses of primitive rock are poked into the secondary parts, and these extend north as far as lat. 2710'. Above the rocks are, in many places, repositories of gravel and sand, the former hard, the latter loose and changing. A portion of the eastern desert is metalliferous. Gold is found even at the face day in small quantities, and looks anciently to have been more abundant. Copper, iron, and leading have been also met with in modern times, and one iron mine points signs of having been anciently made. Emeralds abound in the area about Mount Zabara, and the east desert further yields jaspers, carnelians, breccia verde, agates, chalcedonies, and rock-crystal.

Ancient Egyptians Foods

Ancient Egyptians Foods

The shape exerted by different foods over the physical and mental faculties of mankind is so marked as to verify the famous pun of the philosophic Feuerbach, "Man is what he eats". The previous of civilization has always been accompanied by an elevated knowledge of culinary affairs, until cooking has become a science and its several forms great in number. So in observing back the history of foods, cooking utensils and their applies, we of necessity trace back the history of the existence.

The immortalized history of ancient Egypt which was, reported to Herodotus, known as Thebes, commences with the reign of Menes, who is said to have been its first king. He risen the throne some 2320 before Christ.

The growth of civilization among the gone Egyptians was much more fast than among the souls of any latest nation. Even in the days of Abraham and Joseph they had discovered to as high a stage of social culture as during the most pretty periods of their calling. In art and science their advancement was peculiarly marked. In her infancy, Egypt complacent herself with the followings of agriculture, the chase, and, as the habits of the people grown more settled, the straight of cattle or cows.

• Meat in Ancient Egypt
• Plants and Vegetable in Ancient Egypt