Without the Nile, Egypt would not exist

Egypt is located north of the African continent. It is one of the most populous countries of Africa: 80 million

Without the Nile, Egypt would not exist. There would be no water or fertile land for planting. The level of rainfall is low, about 100 to 150 millimeters on average annually. The climate is hot, even in winter, temperatures rarely drop below 13 ° C. But Egypt has the Nile. He is one of the largest rivers in the world and covers a long distance - about 6690 kilometers - in a valley flanked by cliffs and mountains, once a year between June and October, there was the flooding of the Nile, which covered the valley with a thick layer of mud and sediment. Through the centuries it became a rich soil, hot and humid. It was in this valley that the ancient Egyptians lived and grew their crops. If, as occasionally happened, the floods did not occur, there was hunger in the country. Since the Aswan Dam was completed in 1968, the Nile no longer floods.

Survival from the land
Egyptian farmers planted beans, lentils, beans and vegetables in the wet mud of the Nile. The crops grew rapidly and gave good yields. The fresh sludge every year served as natural fertilizer. The farmers dug irrigation canals to spread the water from flooding as far as possible and to ensure supplies for the flood was over. They built ingenious machines to capture water from the river and irrigate the fields. Ferries and cargo boats followed a careful course of the river channels. Cows, donkeys, rats, dogs and children wandered in the shallow margins. The women gathered to wash clothes, talking and laughing. The drinking water that came from shallow pools and polluted. The "river of life" was also a nest of diseases. Farmers Egyptians manufactured and repaired their own agricultural tools, usually very simple and made of wood. Although these instruments would facilitate the tasks, the work was very hard. There was no time to lose. In addition to cultivating the fields, the Egyptian village gathered wild plants to feed cattle, cut bamboo for making baskets and mats and created to make linen fabrics. Where there was enough land, they planted and harvested apples, grapes and figs. Used the Nile mud into bricks to build and repair their homes.

Hunting and fishing
Egyptians villages hunted wild animals nearby and fished by boat, with spears or nets. Sometimes they went out to kill crocodiles or, less frequently, hippos. They considered these two very dangerous animals. It was also important to exterminate the pests that threaten crops, mainly mice and locusts. The Egyptians created (and sometimes loved) cats. Some belonging to noble sportsmen, were trained to collect the dead birds with spears. Cats kill mice, but nothing could stand in the fields of an invasion of locusts. If they came before the harvest, as he wrote an Egyptian poet, the rich were worried, and each man was seen carrying weapons. Ensure a good harvest was therefore a matter of life or death.

Creatures of the Nile
The Nile was the habitat of a huge variety of wildlife, from small water snakes to huge crocodiles. Most were harmless, but some took danger to people using the River. We found mummies whose bones appear to have been broken by the teeth of a crocodile.

The Nile in flood
At certain times of the year the Nile overflowed. Its banks submerged resulted in food and water to the Egyptians. The fish were caught with nets thrown by fishermen, or with hooks and lines launched a raft of papyrus. Some plants grew naturally on the banks of the Nile and were well used. With sisal, for example, were made mats and baskets, the lotus buds were used to decorate the banquet of the rich.

After the flood
The crops were sown soon after the floods. The farmers used oxen to pull their wooden plows. If you have animals, plowing themselves fertile mud, using tools.

Source: tati_hundrel.vilabol.uol.com.br



River in northeastern Africa extension is 6.695Km (5.600Km from Lake Victoria), its basin is 3.000.000Km2. The river rises in a stream of Burundi, with the name of Kagera, and then throws in Lake Victoria, which leaves called the Victoria Nile in Uganda. Crosses the lake and then Kioga Lake Mobutu, and thus received the name of Bahr el-Gebel. Penetrates in the Sudan and receives the Bahr el-Ghazal on the right bank and right bank of the Sobat, taking the name of the White Nile. In Khartoum, joins the Blue Nile (coming from Ethiopia) and then receives the Atbara in the region of cataracts. It then goes in Egypt, which crosses from north to south, launching the Mediterranean by a large delta, which begins in Cairo and moves into two branches: the Rosetta (1.076m3 / s) and the Damietta (500M3 / s) .

In Egypt the Nile flood take place between June and November, reaching a maximum in September. The river carries high levels of Alluvium, who leaves at the low water and fertilize the larger bed. Its waters are used for irrigation since ancient times and its lower course is presented as a long oasis that cuts the desert. Bathing a number of cities, it is also a large artery waterway. Major work has been performed in the course (in Egypt) in order to raise the water level at the head of channels and increasing the flow of the river between February and July. The huge Aswan dam was the last and most important of these works.

Egypt, whose official name is Arab Republic of Egypt, is part of the set of poor countries that make up the Third World. The country has a territory of 1.001.449Km2 and 45 million inhabitants. Almost all the population professes Islam, which is the official religion.

"Gift of the Nile", in the words of Herodotus, Greek historian of the fifth century BC, Ancient Egypt was, in fact, an extensive oasis with more than 1,000 miles long by 10 to 20 wide. The Nile was then much wider than it is today and ran across a vast plain. Over time, the width of the river decreased his bed and getting deeper.

The Nile Valley Upper Egypt included, or Land of the South, and Lower Egypt or Land of the North. The Lower Egypt occupied the vast flood plain formed by the delta. Nile was considered a god to egípcios.s uas nourishing waters, Egypt would now be a desert (hot), too dry for the existence of agricultura.Este gave tambégua river water as well as water to irrigate their crops.

More than five thousand years the Nile has been providing wealth for the successive civilizations and cultures that flourished on its banks. The silt carried by water and control its flow through dams, irrigation ensures permanent lowland bathed by him, who often produce three crops a year: in winter wheat, barley, flax and onion; autumn rice and maize in summer, cotton, rice, cane sugar and oilseeds.

The Nile is the longest river in the world, with a course of 6.650km, from south to north, and a bowl of about 3.349.000km2, or about one tenth the area of Africa. Located in northeastern Africa, is born in the high plains of rural lake Tanzania and Uganda, through Sudan and Egypt, and flows into the Mediterranean. Its annual average flow is 3.100m3 per second.

The complexity of the water system in the region that are the headwaters of the Nile makes it difficult to identify the start of your course. Its source is farther from the Kagera River in Burundi. Or crosses the bounds of Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, and drains into Lake Victoria. She then named the Victoria Nile, across the lakes Kyoga and Albert, and into the Sudan, with the name of al-Jabal, to its confluence with the river Al-Ghazal and Sobat.

The "Nilometer" is a stone building, a sort of pit, built on the riverbank. At bottom, there is direct communication with the Nile. It has several points in the pit wall near the staircase, which allowed to read the height reached by water. Depending on the date and time indicated, it is possible to predict what the maximum height of a flood.

The Nile, throughout history, is the basis for all the people living with it. It was the Nile which provided the water necessary for survival and the planting of Egypt. During the flood waters of the Nile River overflowed the normal bed about 20 miles and flooded the banks and deposited therein a layer of rich humus, wisely exploited by the Egyptians as soon as the period of flooding going on, making the most fertile ground for cultivation. Currently, the Nile ensures the survival of one tenth of the African population.
Namaste