History of Nile River

The Nile River

Egypt is a narrow strip of land, a few tens of kilometers wide, which stretches from the Mediterranean to the cataracts of the Nile for almost 2,000 km. On both sides of this valley, it is the reign of the desert, except for a few oases, the most important of which is that of Fayoum. To the east, the Arabian desert (Djebel Chayeb, 2,880m); to the northeast, the Sinai desert (Mount Sinai, (2,639m), to the west, the Libyan desert. To the north, before flowing into the Mediterranean, the great river forms a delta which, widened in a fan, constitutes Lower Egypt; Upper Egypt begins to the south of the point of the Delta, at Memphis and forms a strip of fertile land whose length reaches more than 2,000 km, but whose width rarely exceeds 10 km.

"Nile" comes from the ancient Greek "Neïlos". In Egyptian it means "ioterou", "the river". The Egyptians also called it "Hâpy" and for them the river is an absolute axis, the "beginning of the world", the road, the source of life which makes green swamps game, feeds fish ponds, provides abundant night dew essential for crops, fertilizes the nourishing soil and provides vital pure water.
The Blue Nile Falls in Sudan. (Ancient Egypt site)

With its 6,671 km long, the Nile is the second largest river in the world. Born in Burundi under the name of Kagera, it crosses Lake Victoria, escapes from it by Owen Falls, crosses Lake Kioga in Uganda and, via Murchison Falls, joins the northern end of Lake Albert, on the border of Zaire. It enters Sudan, takes the name of Bahr el-Gebel "mountain sea" then Bahr el-Ghazal "sea of ​​gazelles" thanks to a huge swamp, the Sadd. Upstream of Kotok (former Fachoda), it becomes Bahr el-Abiad or "White Nile".

The Nile in Luxor. (History of ancient Egypt)
Coming from Lake Tana (1850m) on the Ethiopian plateau, the Bahr el-Azrak "Blue Nile" joins the White Nile in Khartoum and triples the flow of the river. After having received Atbarah on its right south of Khartoum, the Nile now flows into the desert and no longer receives any tributaries. 6 "cataracts", the first located near Aswan where today the "large dam" since 1970 forms the artificial lake Nasser, submerging ancient Nubia, of which only a few monuments were saved from being engulfed ... Out of the first cataract in Aswan, the Nile slopes gently towards the Mediterranean and flows to Cairo (Memphis) in a narrow fertile valley. In Cairo it divides into two main arms, that of Rosette and that of Damiette, and forms a vast marshy delta before flowing into the Mediterranean.
Le Fayoum. Irrigation channel. (History of ancient Egypt)

From the end of the Paleolithic age the silico-clayey silts form the rich "black earth" during the floods of the river which begin around mid July and last until October. The start of the flood corresponds to the date set for the start of the calendar. The magnitude of the flood was monitored using the "nilometer" and its importance depended on the quality of the crops. Too low a flood decreased the cultivable area, too high a flood created damage in the irrigation system.
In this immense oasis, isolated from the rest of the world by the Mediterranean and the deserts, an extraordinary civilization dependent on the river, the fertile silt and the solar cycle developed over three thousand years.