On the banks of the Nile

Over 90 percent of Egypt is scorching desert, so it is sometimes called the ‘red land’. Yet it also contains the  greatest river on Earth – the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world – over 6400 km in length. It flows from  he highlands of Central Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. This mighty river provided the basis for the great civilization of ancient Egypt. The Nile results from three great rivers coming together – the White Nile, the Atbara  and the Blue Nile. The White and Blue Niles merge in the Sudan, near Khartoum. Flood season in Egypt lasts from mid July to the end of September. When the floodwater retreats (between November and March) farmers begin  to sow their crops, ready to harvest between April and June. The first Egyptian farmers waited for the Nile to  flood to nourish their crops, but by 5000 BC they had started to devise ways to control the great river. They dug  canals to channel the floodwater to distant fields. The first reservoir was built at Fayum, about 60 km southwest of Cairo. The Egyptians surrounded the plot with about 30 km of dykes and reduced a huge saltwater lake into  the freshwater Lake Moeris. The Egyptians lived on the banks of the river Nile or by canals springing out from it.  This land was the best and most fertile in the country, and was called ‘Kemet’ – the ‘black land’. The farming year  began when the Nile flooded, washing mineral-rich silt deposits onto the land. This usually led to a bountiful  summer harvest. The height of the Nile flood was crucial to the survival of crops. The amount of water was monitered using ‘nilometers’ – stone staircases that led down into the river. The speed at which the water  covered the steps told the Egyptians how fast and intense the flood was likely to be. Even when the floods  receded, the Nile provided the people of Egypt with a life-saving source of water in the otherwise hot and arid  landscape, without which the Egyptians’ empire would have crumbled.