Ancient Egypt was the land of the lower Nile Valley, from the First Cataract at Aswan in southern Egypt to the Mediterranean shore of the northern Delta. Because the Nile River flows from south to north, southern Egypt is called upper Egypt, while northern Egypt (the Cairo region and the delta) is Lower Egypt. In modern times the northern part of upper Egypt, from Asyut to the Faiyum, is often referred to as Middle Egypt. The Egyptian Nile Valley consists of a continuous stretch of river and floodplain through upper and Middle Egypt and the Cairo region. About 700 kilometers long, the Egyptian Nile Valley is unimpeded by any rapids.
The Nile delta, in the northernmost part of the country, is where the river breaks off into several branches, which have changed over the course of millennia as some channels silted up and others formed (seven branches were known in the 1st century ad). The two main branches of the Nile of the present delta are the western Rosetta branch and the eastern damietta branch.
The southern border of ancient Egypt was at Aswan, where the northernmost Nile cataract is located. Nubia is to the south of Egypt along the Nile, with Lower Nubia between the First and Second Cataracts, and upper Nubia to the south, farther up the Nile. during much of pharaonic times Egypt controlled parts of Nubia, but the region was culturally and geographically distinct from Egypt. Lower Nubia is now covered by Lake Nasser, which flooded the region after the Aswan High dam was built in the 1960s. As a result, thousands of archaeological sites in Lower Nubia were destroyed, and tens of thousands of Nubians had to be relocated to new settlements in Egypt and Sudan.
From the beginning of the dynastic period the capital of Egypt was at Memphis in Lower Egypt, to the west of which was Saqqara, where many kings of the old Kingdom built their pyramids. The Theban area in upper Egypt (modern Luxor) became important from the First Intermediate Period onward. Thebes was the power base of the kings who founded both the Middle and New Kingdoms, and the major cult center of the god Amen-Ra was located there. From the New Kingdom onward many cities were located in the delta, which became highly populated. Middle Egypt remained a provincial region, except when the heretical king Akhenaten of the 18th dynasty built his new capital city at the site of Amarna. To the west of the river in the northern part of Middle Egypt is the Faiyum region, with a large lake (Greco-Roman Lake Moeris, known as Birkat Qarun in Arabic) which is connected to the Nile via the Bahr Yusef branch of the Nile. The Faiyum is where there is evidence of the earliest farming in Egypt, in the late sixth millennium bc.
Ancient Egypt was divided into administrative districts or provinces (which the Greeks called nomes). Along the Nile Valley the provinces were divided in sequence with land on both sides of the river. These were the 22 provinces of upper Egypt, which were established by the 5th dynasty. The 20 provinces of Lower Egypt in the delta were numbered separately, but were not finally fixed until much later, in Greco-Roman times.
The deserts to the east and west of the Nile Valley are called the Eastern and Western deserts. In the Western desert there is a series of major oases (Siwa, Bahriya, Farafra, dakhla, and Kharga oases) which are fed by underground springs. Three smaller oases (dunqul, Kurkur, and Selima oases) are located to the west of Nubia. Aside from these
Map 3.1 Egypt, Nubia, Sinai, and oases in the Western Desert.
Map 3.2a Nomes of Upper Egypt. Source: J. Baines and J. Malek, Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Andromeda, 2000.
Map 3.2b Nomes of Lower Egypt. Source J. Baines and J. Malek, Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Andromeda, 2000.
Oases, the Western Desert was barren and very dry during pharaonic times, with limited habitation only in the oases.
A range of mountains up to 2,000 meters above sea level, sometimes called the Red Sea Hills, runs along the Eastern desert from north to south. This desert too was very dry during pharaonic times. The Eastern Desert was where many desirable stones and minerals, including gold, were found, and mining and quarrying expeditions were sent there by the state. Bisecting the Eastern desert are a number of wadis (seasonal runoff channels and desert valleys), some with a fair amount of fresh water below the surface. Some of the Eastern desert wadis, especially the Wadi Hammamat, were the routes the ancient Egyptians took from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea coast. Lacking much fresh water, the Red Sea coast was also a hostile region for the ancient Egyptians, but harbors are known there beginning in the old Kingdom.
On the other side of the Red Sea is the Sinai Peninsula, which is part of the modern state of Egypt but not of the ancient one. Turquoise and copper were mined there by the Egyptians, but the Sinai also had indigenous nomads who were a threat to Egyptian operations there.
Names of ancient Egyptian towns and cities can be given in three different forms:
(1) transliterated and vocalized from ancient Egyptian, (2) in Greek, and (3) in Arabic. For example, “Hierakonpolis” is the Greek name of a pharaonic town in southern Egypt known as “Nekhen.” The Arabic name of the town site is “Kom el-Ahmar.” The most frequently used names for sites are used in this book.
World History
