FLOODS AND DROUGHTS

From up in the air, most of the Nile looks like a brown snake wriggling along north across a desert area. It's narrow banks are lined with fresh green crops and palms. Suddenly, sometimes it all turns into desert - red hot sands. The people who lived in Egypt four thousand years ago, called their dark and gloomy valley, the black land. The desert was called the red land. Egypt rarely gets any rain. The desert areas on the east and west, are part of the famous Sahara desert , which is also the desert that covers up much of North Africa. With the desert on two sides, mountains to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt was very well protected from invaders.

Egyptians on the desert land depend on the Nile for water and for life. The amount of water that the Nile carried on it's journey to the sea changed from season to season. When it rained in Central Africa, and snow began to melt in the East African mountains, the water level rose. When the river reached Egypt, it over flowed it's banks. All the farmers depended on this frequent flood to water their crops. The floods that Egypt had, was more predictable than the floods that Mesopotamia had. The farmers knew each year when the river would rise, and they planned ahead. The Egyptian people measured time by the river dividing the year into three seasons. This cycle of flooding, planting and harvesting gave the Egyptian people a very important pattern to their life.

SAILING ON THE NILE

The Nile was Egypt's main road. The earliest boats were made of papyrus but dockyards along the Nile soon started making boats out of timber. The best evidence we have today for the skill of the shipbuilders is a boat more than forty meters long built for King Khufu around four thousand five hundred years ago and discovered in a pit next to the Great Pyramid. It was a ceremonial barge with a cabin for the king and it was probably meant for King Khufus's journey with the sun god in the after life. The Egyptians gave ships names like we do today. For example, one commander started off in a ship called "Northern" and got promoted to the ship "Rising in Memphis".