The Nile River

Abstract

In the fifth century B.C., Greek historian Herodotus described Egypt as "A land won by the Egyptians and given them by the Nile." The wealth of ancient Egyptian civilization truly derived from the blessed river that moves through the country with the dignity of a Caliph. The rhythm of the river regulated the lives of the people along its banks for millennia. Through images of common everyday activities and stunning ancient monuments, this video describes the natural environment of Egypt and how it shaped the way of life of Egyptian civilization through its classical period. It has many natural barriers, which help protects the land from the Nile River. The Nile provided fertile lands, and building blocks for the lands. Egypt is called the Gift of the Nile River because the valley is extremely fertilized. The level of the flood’s crest had determined the abundance of the following harvest. Too little water left fertile land unirrigated and hence cultivation the country into famine.

Keyword: Greek historian Herodotus (G.H.H)

What role did the environment and religion play in Egyptian civilization?

                It is surely no accident that the first civilizations to develop high levels of political centralization, urbanization, and technology were situated in river valleys where rainfall was insufficient for reliable agriculture. Egypt was less crossroads than an isolated land protected by surrounding barriers of desert and harbors less. (Jack M. Sasson, Civilization of the Ancient Neat East.)  The unpredictable and violent floods in the Tigris-Euphrates were a constant source of the people of Egypt. In contrast, the opposing and the Nile floods were eagerly events in Egypt. The relationship with nature and the worldwide of people, in Egypt nurtured the supernatural powers, that they believed that, although the journey to the next world was full of hazard. Although the population of Mesopotamia and Egypt were dimensionally, new immigrants still assimilated from one place to another. The women also loss freedom, and legal privilege due to the class within the society.

Travel and Communication

        “Gift of the Nile” travel and communication centered on the river, with the most important cities located upstream away from the Mediterranean. Because of the river flows from South to North, the Egyptian called the southern part of the country “Upper Egypt” and the northern part of the country “Lower Egypt”. The Egypt’s southern boundary in most periods, but Egyptian control sometimes extended father south into what called Nubia. (Hymn for the Nile) discover the degree of which the Nile River is viewed with power and within the survival of the people of Egypt. The farming villages that appeared in Egypt as early 5500 B.C.E. relied on domestic plants, and animal species that emerged from one place to another.

Divine Kingship

        The increasing population called for greater complexibilty in political organization including a form of the local kingship. Brisch, N. in press. The Priestess and the King: The Divine Kingship of Shu-Sin of Ur. Journal of the American Oriental Society. Later kings of Egypt bore two lands which is the Land of the Upper and Land of the Lower. According to Selz (1997) the introduction of divine kingship also presupposes the growing humanization of deities in Egypt due to the Nile River. The King believed to be a combination of the divine and a mortal. He was linked between the gods and mankind. Only men could be king, and kingship ideally passed from father to son. Rarely a women (1479-1457 BC, became king. (Montclei.edu). by the time of the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BCE), the dogma of divine kingship exhibited a high degree of sophistication. The King was the physical offspring of the Creator by a human woman—the Mother of God. This lecture looks at several symbolic representations of the king’s divinity (DivineKingship.com 2007). The movie called “The Gift of the Nile” explain Egypt with regards to its physical features, climate, and how the King build bigger walls to block water getting to the people.

Nile Importance to the people

        The Nile made it possible for the people and for the people of ancient Egypt. Since it nearly possible for the people to forget the importance of the Nile River, they fought and fought for the reliance of providing more to their families. Since the River does not flow regularly, it is nearly impossible to grow much food in the area where people lived far from the banks of the Nile River. The Nile flows into the vast Mediterranean Sea, which formed Egypt’s border to the north. Egypt’s isolation led to its unification. People live spoke the same language and worshipped many of the same gods more than five thousand years ago. The Nile played a major role in the building of civilizations. It started on a river valley or in place where resources are numerous and where Indus River is found where Euphrates is found and many other places. Around 5000 BC, one of the first great civilizations developed in the northern Nile river valley dependent on agriculture in a land called Egypt. Water; Fertile soil; and river's flow north while prevailing wind blows south made the Nile the best transportation way, were examples of the Nile gifts. Another gift is that every year the flood came bringing disaster and famine due to destroying the crops and their villages. The first forms of government appeared in Egypt when the Egyptians organized their efforts under one leadership to avoid the disasters of the yearly flood.