![]() ![]() The inundation was separate to the River Nile and personified as the god Hapy (or Hapi). For an empire that seemed to have a different god relating to all aspects of daily life and the afterlife, it is unsurprising that the Egyptians also worshipped a god of the Nile, more specifically to the yearly inundating Nile. In a land that almost never rains, the Nile in ancient Egypt was essential and considered a god-created element of the universe. By its very nature, as the waters shifted and altered slowly over the millennia, it covered and flooded much earlier habitations including, unfortunately, some aspects of the predynastic and other eras. The site of the Nile in Egypt today is not at the same area or size as it was in ancient times as it is moving laterally, evidenced from core samples, levees, migra- tion studies, NASA satellites and infra-red imagery. This is rather apt for a civilisation that held the newborn sun emerging from a lotus plant as one of its creation myths. Viewed from high above, the Nile at the delta forms a fan shape with its canals resembling an open lotus plant and the Nile itself as the stem of the flower. There are three rivers from the south that join into the Nile, The White Nile, The Blue Nile and the Atbara. After this time, in the quest for gold and new lands, this southern boundary was opened up for exploration. There are six cataracts, or rapids, formed by rocky outcrops that are sited in the southern section of the Nile between Aswan and Khartoum, and until the New Kingdom (1550 B.C.), this formed the boundary of the Egyptian empire. The summer monsoons in Ethiopia initiate a large portion of the Nile that is carried north. Including the remotest source at the Kagera River in Burundi, it is also the world’s longest river. The hydrographic basin of the Nile is immense, covering 3.2 million square kilometres and with a length of some 6740 kilometres (4190 miles). In ancient times, there were three branches, identified as the water of Pre, the water of Ptah and the water of Amun. Two main branches of the Nile are formed in the delta with the Rosetta to the west and Damietta at the east. The north-flowing Nile meanders through 11 countries from East Africa to the Mediterranean: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan and Sudan, before fanning out through Egypt and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. the Nile was also essential in transporting blocks of stone from the quarries to the building sites of temples, cemeteries and the pyramids.ĭespite the Nile being synonymous with both ancient and modern Egypt, only 22 per cent of this mighty river is situated in Egypt itself. It provided the dietary staple of fish and waterfowl papyrus for ropes, rafts, writing implements and footwear encompassed the agriculture, religion, culture and transport in Egypt and its life-giving nature was celebrated with festivals. The Nile River in ancient Egypt was the vital link to many facets of this ancient culture and was never far from the sight of the people who lived in settlements within a short distance of its banks. ![]() Photo Credit: TERRY J LAWRENCE-ISTOCKPHOTO.COM ![]()
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