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Ancient Egyptian Geography

The geography of Ancient Egypt was an interesting concept from the perspective of the ancient Egyptians themselves. They believed their country was divided into two distinct geographical sections, the black land (the fertile banks of the river Nile) and the red land (the barren desert that covered the rest of the country)

Location

The location of ancient Egypt was in North-Eastern Africa, having formed and flourished along the lower portion of the Nile River. It made up most of what is now the modern Arab Republic of Egypt.

Ancient Egypt had four main divisions of its land, the first two being the Upper and Lower Egypt. It may appear odd that the Upper Egypt actually referred to lands to the south, yet this distinction was based on the flow of the Nile. Upper Egypt was little more than a river valley, only about two miles wide at its narrowest and 12 at its widest. Tall cliffs surrounded it on either side. Lower Egypt was the wide delta sitting where the modern city of Cairo is now.

The last two divisions were between red and black land, as previously mentioned. The western desert contained the occasional oasis, but the eastern desert was mostly barren and hostile, save for mines and quarries

Climate In Ancient Egypt

The climate of ancient Egypt was much the same as it is today; a hot, dry desert climate with very little rainfall. Coastal areas would benefit from winds coming off the Mediterranean Sea, but in the interior, these winds were hardly felt and temperature was high, especially in the summer.

Between March and May, a hot, dry wind called the khamasin blows through the desert. This wind causes humidity to drop and temperatures to soar over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Rain and clouds are more prevalent near Alexandria, which is influenced again by the Mediterranean Sea. The mountainous region of Sinai has the coolest temperatures during the night, due to its elevation. Winter temperatures can drop as low as three degrees Fahrenheit during the night in some towns.

View of Saharan dust blowing over Egypt and towards the Middle East

The Deserts of Ancient Egypt

The deserts of ancient Egypt were the Red Lands, situated on both sides of the Nile.

The Western Desert was actually part of the Libyan Desert and covered 262,000 square miles. Its geography largely consisted of valleys, sand dunes and some mountainous areas. This desert also contained oases, five of which are still known today.

The Eastern Desert extended out to the Red Sea. It is part of what is known as the Arabian Desert today. This desert was arid and barren, but the ancient Egyptians used it extensively to mine various stones. The geography of this desert consisted of more mountains and rocky areas than sand dunes.

Topography of Egypt

The River Nile

The well-known summation of Egypt's existence as the "gift of the Nile" came from the Greek philosopher Herodotus. The philosopher rightly observed that everything that caused the Egyptian civilization to exist and flourish came from the Nile. Very little rain fell in ancient Egypt, certainly not much more than falls in the present, and so drinking water, washing water, water for crops and animals, all of it came from the Nile.

The headwaters of this great river lie deep in Africa and every spring, snowmelt from the Ethiopian highlands poured down into the river, causing it to slowly rise. The Nile floodwaters were extremely predictable, overflowing sometime in late July, then receding in November, wildly contrasting to the floods in Mesopotamia, which were unpredictable and extremely destructive when they did happen. Ancient Egypt flourished as the garden of the ancient world.

http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egyptian-geography.html

Geography of Ancient Egypt

Nile River and the Desert

In ancient times, the Egyptians called the desert the "red land", distinguishing it from the flood plain around the Nile River, called the "black land". These colours reflect the fact that the desert sands have a reddish hue and the land around the Nile turned black when the annual flood waters receded.

The Upper Nile is divided into three tributaries (a river or stream flowing into a larger river or lake. ): the White Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara River. The White Nile flows from Lake Victoria, Lake Edward and Lake George, and the Blue Nile originates in the Ethiopian mountains. The Atbara River flows from the Ethiopian highlands and meets the combined White Nile and Blue Nile just north of Khartoum. Before the river enters the Mediterranean Sea, it divides into four smaller tributaries in the delta region.

The northern region of Egypt is bounded by two deserts, the mountainous Eastern, or Arabian, Desert and the sandy Western, or Libyan, Desert. Nomadic tribes continue to roam these desert regions as they have done for centuries, stopping at oases to refill their water supplies.

Around 5000 B.C., when the climate became more arid, nomadic groups retreated to the Nile Valley, creating the first urban settlements. These communities were concentrated in the North and the South. As a result, Egypt became known as the "Double Land" or the "Two Lands" of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Dualities, such as desert and river valley, Upper and Lower Egypt, life and death, were an important organizing principle of the Egyptian's world view.

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcgeo2e.shtml

The River Nile

The River Nile

The Nile River is the reason that the ancient Egyptians developed their civilization. The surround areas of Egypt are desert and the Nile River brought water and rich soil that could be used to fertilize and grow crops. The Nile River is considered to be the longest river in the world at 6,853 km and flows in a majority of northeastern Africa.

When we see pictures of the Nile, we might think of it as one huge long river, but it actually has two sections that are called ‘tributaries’. These are smaller rivers that run separately and then merge into one river. The names of the tributaries are called the White Nile and the Blue Nile.

The White Nile is:

• The main stream of the Nile River.
• Longer and increases in an area of Africa known as the Great Lakes region.

The Blue Nile is:

• 
  The real reason that the annual floods bring dark rich soil to Egypt’s farming areas.

The Nile River flows completely through the desert and then ends in what is called a ‘delta’ in Egypt. On its final journey it empties out into the Mediterranean Sea.

Scientists have not agreed on where the source of the water comes from that feeds the Nile River. Some thought it might be Lake Victoria which is one of Africa’s largest lakes. But that lake has a number of feeder rivers that they didn’t think affected the Nile. Others think it might be two the feeder rivers themselves that meet near the Rusumo Falls on the border of two African countries: Rwanda and Tanzania.

In the times of ancient Egypt there were heavy annual rains near both the White and Blue Niles. The large amount of water from the rain caused both tributaries to fill and move the water into the Nile River. The flooding was the expansion of so much extra water before it had a chance to empty into the Mediterranean Sea.

The Egyptians knew the time of the year that the Nile River would flood. They depended on the flooding to bring extra water and the rich soil and dirt that fertilized the fields for growing crops. Since the rains happened almost at the same time every year, the Egyptian civilization and everyday life was based on the flooding of the Nile, the planting and harvesting of the crops. The Nile flooded the area for about three months and then it had time to empty out into the Mediterranean Sea and return back to its normal size and flow.

The Nile River was used by the ancient Egyptians to travel in boats for trade to other areas. It was also used to transport items to the various sections of the Egyptian kingdom. It is thought that many of the stones used for the pyramids and the great buildings in Egypt were ‘quarried’ (dug out from the natural rock) and then loaded onto barges and sailed to the location of the new buildings.

Pharaohs had beautiful fancy ships built for themselves to travel up and down the Nile for pleasure and relaxation. The Nile River supplied Egypt with a way to have commerce as well as being the source for their crops.

Since the Nile River was so important to ancient Egyptian life, they added it as part of their religion. They believed the Nile River was the river way that was taken from life to death and then to enter the afterlife. The east was looked at as the place of growth and birth and the west was part of death. This is the same idea as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. In the Egyptian religion it was the way their Sun god Ra, traveled to birth, life, death and then to be reborn each day. This is why all of the burial tombs for the Egyptians are on the west side of the Nile.

The ancient Egyptians based their calendar on the three cycles of the Nile River. Each season was four months, each month thirty days.

http://www.historyforkids.net/river-nile.html

Mummification Process Interactive

Go to the site below and do the activity on line!

http://oi-archive.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/mummy.html