THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE NILE VALLEY

To understand the Nile River is to understand Egypt. It defines the nation in every way.

Ancient Egypt traditionally ran from the First Cataract of the river over 600 miles north to the Mediterranean Sea. On average the Valley is only twelve miles wide -- a strip of fertile land between inhospitable deserts.

As the Sahara grew hot, the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians drifted to the river, clan by clan, tribe by tribe. They lined the river like beads on a necklace.

Year after year the Nile flooded, depositing nutrient-rich black mud along its banks. Crops and villages flourished, creating all the ingredients needed to support life and the growth of a great civilization. The ancient Egyptians called their country Kemet, the "Black Land" after this Nile mud. Everywhere else was desert wasteland: Deshret, the "Red Land".

The Nile forms a highway linking every city and village on the river to every other. It gave the pharaohs a unique ability to unify the nation. The power of the 'Sons of Ra' could be everywhere along the Nile.

Unified by the river and bounded by desert and sea, ancient Egypt was protected from outside influences and allowed to evolve in its own unique way.

The Nile River permitted -- one could even say demanded -- the rise of Egyptian Civilization.

The Egyptians settled along the Nile in three main clusters:

UPPER EGYPT
Mostly between Thebes and the First Cataract. The ancient Egyptians made the lowlands along the upper reaches of the Nile fit for cultivation. They cut the earthen banks of the river to allow the annual flood waters to fill huge irrigation basins. This required cooperation on a scale beyond single villages and provoked the political growth of the Upper Egyptian state.

THE FAIYUM
Lake Moeris in the Faiyum region is a natural oasis irrigated by a run-off branch of the Nile. The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom reclaimed large tracts of land from around the lake and put them under cultivation. Under the Ptolemies in the Greco-Roman Period the Greeks settled here in large numbers, preferring it to other stretches of the Nile Valley.

THE DELTA - LOWER EGYPT
The Delta has always been for the most part a huge swamp laced with waterways. Few areas remain above the water during the Nile flood. Tidal surges wash into the marshes along the Mediterranean coast. The Egyptians have labored for millenia to maintain their settlements, dams and drainage canals. Despite the difficulties, the majority of the Egyptian population has always in Lower Egypt (although much of what they built is now lost).

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