Why Egypt was called the Gift of the Nile?
Nile is considered as the longest River in the world having around 4000 miles length. As it exists in the Lotus flower shape, this river was used in most of the art works of Egyptians. Nile River isolated Egypt from the other lands. There are deserts on either side of the Nile River and mountains towards its south. This made the Egyptians to achieve a unique culture. During the Spring Season, the Nile waters will flood the nearby mountains. When the waters that have fled the mountains go back into the River, it leaves the black rich fertile soil called silt deposits. This soil is called by the ancient Egyptians as ‘The Gift of Nile,.
The Egypt is filled with much of this rich fertile soil which can be used for raising crops successfully. The fertile soil is not the only gift provided by Nile. Nile presented several gifts to the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians got fresh drinking water and fresh water for bathing. Nile was helpful for them in trading and navigation. Nile gave them raw materials for making buildings, for creating cloth for their dresses, and for making paper. Paper was made from a wild weed called papyrus which was mostly found on the shores of Nile. The Nile used to flood every year, which provided the ancient Egyptians number of resources to live happily. The ancient Egyptians lived in very high standards than the other ancient civilization societies. If the Nile River was not there in Egypt, this place would have been a desert.
Nile played an important role in the creation of Egyptian civilization. The ancient Egyptians cultivated Flax, wheat and many more crops surrounding Nile and traded them. This trade helped the Egyptians to maintain the diplomatic relationships with other countries and made them to stabilize economically. Hence, Egypt was called as Gift of Nile.
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for irrigation. The Pharaoh,nobles officials and lector and other priests would offer great public displays of ritual prayers,sacrifice and offerings to the Nile and the Gods who represented it.
The source of the Nile and the cause of the inundation was not known by the ancient Egyptians who thought it came from a sacred spring hidden in the mountains to the southwest.
Herodotus gives us a fanciful account of his opinion of the Niles source in his famous writings on Egypt in the 5th century B.C.E.
It was not until the 1800s that the true source of the Nile was located in the mountains of Ethiopia and Uganda.
In its incredible development Egypt used the Nile as a super highway. Traders,goods and supplies all came by the Nile.Farmers used it to bring their produce to market and to vist provincial centres.
Pharoahs and nobles used it for sport,hunting crocodile and hippopotamus.
The Nile was used for pleasure and for traveling to the various cities and provincial nomes by officials and priests.The navy and military forces of the Pharoah practiced war games on the Nile