The Nile River In Ancient Egypt

Introduction

Without the Nile River, many ancient civilizations in Africa wouldn’t have been able to survive. The Nile River is a major river in the northeastern section of Africa. The Nile River is the longest river in the world, stretching over four thousand miles. Since ancient times, waterways were extremely important for human civilization. Early civilization settled and developed close to waterways and in adjacent valleys that provided: water and fertile soil for agricultural development, ability for transportation, as well as unification and centralization of Egyptian society. The name of the river (Nile), came from the Greek word (Neilos) which means ‘river’. The Nile runs through, and is shared by ten countries, Burundi and Rwanda

The availability of water, the high temperatures, and the increased level of nutrients from the river made for an ideal location to grow agriculture. Seasonal flooding of the Nile, provided the citizens of Egypt a way for the soil to regain vital nutrients, to improve crop quality, and create a consistency in their agricultural wealth. Also, the flooding would come in predictable cycles which in turn, centralized and unified the Egyptian society. Also the flooding was used for their drinking water since there were no regulations. Early Egyptian agriculture included: vegetables, fruits, wheat, barley, flax, and papyrus. Wheat was their cash crop due to their ability to sell or make food such as bread. Flax was another important crop because it was the main ingredient to their clothing. Lastly, papyrus was also a vital crop due to its use in the construction of their tools, paper, and even their boats. The papyrus plant was often shown in hieroglyph with two plants formed an emblem on unification

This in turn, created an effective way to transport goods, resources, materials, and laborers. Ultimately, the river was known as a much easier transportation option due to early land travel being dangerous. Traveling by land primarily consisted of transportation by donkey. This method proved to be dangerous due to running the risk of the animal being overworked and dying in the hot Egyptian desert. In addition, when traveling by land, Egyptians also had a higher risk of being attacked by nomadic people. The Nile river also contained and supplied the early Egyptians with copious amounts of building materials. They would use mud from the riverbanks to make sundried bricks. These bricks could be used to build: homes and or other buildings. Primarily most ancient Egyptians used mudbricks to build their small houses. They would use wood beams to hold up their flat mud roofs (Mankato). Limestone and sandstone were also gathered from the hills nearby that also could have been used in construction of their pyramids and their other