Do you think that you could hike over 4,000 miles in 55 days? The Nile river is the longest river the the whole world measuring over 4,000 miles. That’s a very long hike. That is like hiking from STL to Seattle and back. For the Ancient Egyptians traveling up and down this long river was a way of life. The Nile shaped Ancient Egypt in at least 3 ways. The Nile ba provided precious water in a vast desert for sustaning crops, provided transportation for trade, and provided hope in an afterlife.
Did you know that if the Nile didn’t flood it could starve the Egyptians? Since the Nile flooded in Akhet (flooding season) it put down fertilizer that the Egyptians could use in Peret (planting and growing seaon)
for farming. If the Nile didn’t flood, the Egyptians could only live off of the game and gathering. In Peret (planting and harvesting season) water receded but the Nile was high enough to fill irrigation canals; crops planted and tended. (Doc B). The Egytians also transported crops up and down the Nile for trade and for transportating to neighboring villages.
Do you use a river to transport from place to place every day? The Egytians do. The people of the great Nile river almost never travel on foot. The Nile is over 500 miles long in Egypt, so thats a efficient way to travel and trade, far and fast. The Nile runs south to north. It is one of the seven rivers in the world that run south to north. Whenever the Nile flooded it was easier and quicker to travel. During Akhet (flooding season) produced a “good Nile”. (Doc B).
With the great transportation, the Egyptians could also take important needs that the people they burried. Did you know that people get burried with bommerangs, gold and special items? I read in a artical that the Egyptians burried boomerangs and gold in King Tuts tomb. The people of Egypt also panted hieroglyphics in the tombs. Those whose heart had the correct wieght at death could, after a long journy, live in the Field of Reeds forever. (Doc D). Those are some of the ways the great Nile river shaped Ancient Egypt.