Because all life came from the Nile, geography was everything in ancient Egypt. The narrow valley through which the Nile ran, and the wider Delta where it flowed into the sea, were known as the “two lands” of ancient Egypt. Upper Egypt, Ta-Shomu (“narrow land”), was a long, narrow, limestone gorge, 10 to 30 miles wide, stretching from the first cataract at Aswan
To the edge of the Delta, 500 miles to the north. It was bounded by cliffs that rose from a few hundred feet to almost 1,000 feet high. In ancient times, Upper Egypt’s floodplain totaled 42,500 square miles. Cultivated lands extended from just over one and a half miles wide at Aswan to about 13 miles wide on the west bank opposite modern Tell el-Amarna.
About 100 miles south of the Mediterranean, the Nile split into two streams and many smaller tributaries. It formed the fan-shaped Nile Delta, an 8,500-square-mile region of marsh and heavily silted land called Lower Egypt, Ta-Mehu (“water-filled land”).
What Are Connections?
Throughout this book, and all the books in the Great Empires of the Past series, you will find Connections boxes that point out ideas, inventions, art, food, customs, and more from this empire that are still part of our world today. Nations and cultures in remote history can seem far removed from our world, but these connections demonstrate how our everyday lives have been shaped by the peoples of the past.
The ancient Nile had at least five, and as many as 16, outlets to the sea. (The modern Nile has only two, Rosetta and Damietta.) About 50 miles southwest of the Delta’s apex lay the Faiyum. Connected underground to the Nile, the ancient Faiyum was a wetlands paradise, thick with lotus and papyrus plants and teeming with birds and animals. Birket Qaran, a lake in the northern Faiyum, was a favorite hunting spot.
The Nile (then and now) blends two major streams. The White Nile rises from the clear waters of Lakes Victoria, Albert, and Edward in central Africa. As it flows north, it gathers water from over 1,500 miles of tributaries. The Blue Nile rises in Lake Tana, in the highlands of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia). It flows more than 1,000 miles before joining the White Nile. The two streams join at Khartoum, capital of the modern Republic of the Sudan, and flow another 1,900 miles to the sea. About 140 miles north of Khartoum, the Atbara River, rising from the Ethiopian highlands, joins the Nile.
Near Khartoum, the Nile enters a region of hard sandstone. As it runs through this difficult land, there are six lengths-the cataracts-where it has been unable to carve a clear channel. Stony outcroppings, rapids, and small but treacherous falls obstruct navigation. The northernmost cataract (the first) is closest to Egypt. Once past the first cataract, near the modern city of Aswan, sandstone gives way to softer limestone. This made it much easier for the Nile to carve a relatively straight channel. After passing the island of Elephantine, the Nile enjoys a 675-mile, unobstructed passage to the Delta and the Mediterranean Sea.
World History
