Can You Believe It?

Can you believe that some 5000 years ago ancient Egyptian civilization was founded? By who? Well most likely by stone age hunters following a herd of Buffalo or maybe a Woly Mammoth. How amazing that a group of people that can barley talk have the ability to build up a civilization and make it work. It is also thought that a while later settlers from the south were attracted to the water and decided it would be the ideal place to live. This group the we know as Egyptians lasted for about 2000 years thanks to the protection made by the desert. Here's a big thank you to all the hunters and settlers for creating a home for many and an innovative ways to live. Also to the Nile which too many is their save haven that they can rely on to bring water, silt, and a place to live.

Where Does That Water Flow?

Believe it or not the Nile is actually two rivers that join together to make one. The White and Blue Nile. The White Nile is the longer of the two rivers and rises in Burundi. Although most of the water comes from the Blue Nile. After taking your 4189 mile long journey the Nile eventually empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Can you say yawn? Take a trip with me down the Nile and we can explore the unknown.



Here we go! Let me first tell you about the land surrounding the Nile. Cairo (two islands, Gezira and Roda ) cradle the Nile like a baby. A few miles later you may come across Lower Egypt ( which is really higher up then Upper Egypt but is called Lower Egypt because the Nile flows north. So confusing!) which is were you would find papyrus! WOOOOO! That my friends is Egyptian paper. Pretty cool! Now another stop on our oh so exciting adventure is the Red Land. Whats that? It is just a really fancy name for the dessert land that surrounds the Nile. Now this land can only be seen during certain times of the year. Kemet, which is also known as black land. Black land or Kemet was the color of the silt which was left after each flood. Our journey comes to a close as we are shipped out to sea, the Mediterranean Sea to be exact.

Woh! Did you see that?

The Nile is a beautiful river stretching to 4189 miles long. Think about this... what do you think you would see in or along the Nile? Any ideas? No? Well then let me tell you all about it. A common animal would most likely be a hippopotamus. Although they may look cute they didn't appeal to Egyptians. They were normally killed immediately because they wood squish a farmers crop. We couldn't have that now could we? Without those crops they would have gone H-U-N-G-R-Y!!!!! You may also have seen a waterbird. That makes perfect sense to me, a waterbird on the longest river in the world. But wait! There is one more animal that isn't the friendliest. A crocodile. Dun...dun...dun. You probably don't want to jump out of your boat and take a swim no matter how inviting the water looks, you never know what could be lurking just below the surface. Even if you can't get out of your boat you can still have a good time. Other sites to see could have been a group of happy people relaxing on their reed boats and having a picnic. One more thing that I had in mind was a cataract. A cataracts are large waterfalls that lined the Nile. Beautiful, isn't it?

I Want That!

Have you ever wanted something so so so bad? Have you ever wanted to get out of trouble so you tried to barter or make a deal with someone? Well, if you had lived in Egypt you most likely would have done this on a daily basis. To get a little you had to give a little. Trade took place along the lands the bordered Aegean, the Mediterranean, and the Red Seas. Now to get some, you may have obtained items such as silver, horses, cedar logs, ivory, leopard skins, gold, cattle,and spice. To give some you may have trade away items such as gold, other minerals, wheat, barley, papyrus sheets, and wine. Now you have all these excellent things to give and take but how to transport your good...? Hmm...? Well if you were going to transport these goods along the water you could have used reed boats. But, if you could get to the trading ground by land you could have hopped on your donkey or walked off a few pounds. Only the wealthy got special chairs and servants to carry them around on. Darn! So unfair that the average Egyptian actually had to work while the royals got life handed to them.

Aswan Dam

The Aswan Dam was completed in 1902 and is one of the worlds largest rock-filled dams, measuring at 364 feet high and 2 1/3 miles long. A rock-filled dam consists of coarse rocks and boulders and is normally covered in some type of concealment, in this case clay. The dam was built to protect the Egyptians the lived along the Nile from sever flooding. Hey! That seems like a pretty nice gesture, right? Wrong! The flooding each year in July was a natural part of nature but of course man had to come in and tamper with it. Now before I inform you of what a pain the dam is let me tell you about its very few upsides. The dam is a protector against flooding and provides fifteen percent of Egypt's electrical power. Well that's about it. Now for the list of hindrances the dam causes. Without the fertile soil farmers are forced to use those harsh chemical fertilizers which causes the land to erode. Now think about this, where does all the extra water go? Well that all important flood water ended up filling Lake Nesser. That doesn't sound so awful but it flooded other lands wiping out many ancient temples and churches. So thank you to the genius that thought building a dam and controlling more was a good idea. Maybe they will tear down this dam and let nature flow (literally flow.)

What was life on the Nile like?

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