What are the natural conditions of Egypt?

The name "Egypt" is of Greek origin. The Greeks so modified the ancient capital of the Egyptians - Memphis. The inhabitants themselves in ancient times called their country "Kemet", which means "Black". This was considered a noble color, as it symbolized plowed land. Herodotus wrote about the inhabitants of the African country that "the Egyptians are all those who drink water from the Nile." It was this river that gave life to the ancient people who created here a developed civilization. This was facilitated by the natural and climatic conditions of Egypt. We will try to understand what was so unusual in it that it was this stretch of land, several kilometers wide, that is considered the cradle of humanity. What natural conditions in Ancient Egypt contributed to this? We will try to answer these questions.

Natural conditions of Ancient Egypt: natural boundaries

Ancient Egypt had natural boundaries that made its inhabitants an autochthonous population. It was a huge oasis among the dead deserts. From the first Nile threshold to the Mediterranean Sea, its extent was about 1200 km. The rocky mountains and deserts in the west and east, the impenetrable rapids in the south, and the sea in the north - all this allowed the country to isolate itself from the external wild world, calmness to the development of the territory.

Climate

Scientists believe that the modern climatic conditions of Egypt were formed about 5 thousand years ago. The weather was deserted hot during the day and cool with frosts at night.

From March to May, the most "terrible" time for the inhabitants came. Sandy storms raged for almost two months. The fields were covered with a thick layer of sand. "Red wind of the desert" buried whole settlements. Sometimes he closed the sun so that it was difficult to distinguish the evening from the morning, the Bible has a metaphor "dark Egyptian", which characterizes this phenomenon.

Rains did not play any role in agriculture and were considered natural disasters. To survive, the population had to build irrigation systems. Thus, the natural conditions of Egypt pushed people into a large economic association.

Such a different Nile

The Nile River, due to which there was the opportunity to develop civilizations here, is not homogeneous throughout the country. From the first threshold to the city of Memphis (the territory near modern Cairo), the width of a livable valley varied from a few kilometers to 40, the rocks to the north of Memphis parted, and the Nile disintegrated into many branches, forming a wide valley in the north of the country in the form of a delta - this is the delta River. If you look at the maps, the river looks like a tree with one trunk with a branch on top. The difference between the north (Lower Egypt) and the south (Upper Egypt) was clearly different: in one the climate was Mediterranean, in the other - African. This affected the history of the country, since two different states were created here, after all still unified.

Nature miracle

A single Nile is formed by the fusion of two different rivers. One is a calm (White Nile), originating from Lake Victoria, which is in Equatorial Africa. The other is the swift (Blue Nile), flowing from the high-mountain Ethiopian Lake Tana.

The river is a real miracle of nature. It created favorable natural conditions of Ancient Egypt for the development of agriculture. This was due to the deposition of the Nile fertile and unpretentious silty soil. Its volume reached 100 million tons of the richest in mineral fertilizers alluvium. The level of such a soil reached up to 18-20 meters, on which it was possible to grow various crops. For the cultivation of any culture, it was enough just to loosen the soil with a primitive hoe and throw a seed into the mineral soil. Such a gift of nature allowed to be on this tiny territory and leave thoughts about any relocations in search of a better life.

Let's compare the difficulties of our ancestors-Slavs. In order to grow even unpretentious rye on the land, they needed to free the forest from the trees, burn them, uproot the roots, plow the land deeply, and next year again look for the forest, as the soil was depleted and did not yield the next harvest.

Why did the Nile

Modern floods in Russia are associated with winter precipitation, while the Nile floods, on the contrary, with summer tropical rains in Equatorial Africa. They stably started at the same time to within one day, so the Egyptians quickly adapted to the calendar.

In early June, the water was colored green due to marsh seaweed, later the river became dark brown from the huge mass of volcanic dust. It fell into the Blue Nile at the expense of torrential rains, which were carried from the mountains of the rocks to the river. The water level here rose to 15 meters, which reflected on the delta, the depth of which increased by 7-8 meters.

The peak of water in the valley of Egypt fell at the end of September - early October. In December the river entered the former channel.

In the East, Egypt is not the only civilization that lived from the flood of the river. Another such place was Mesopotamia, living at the expense of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

The main problem of Mesopotamia was flooding, which created many problems, including the subsequent famine and the pestilence.

In Egypt, on the contrary, there was a lack of moisture in low floods.

"It seemed that the monster wanted to destroy all life ..."

The ancient inhabitants worshiped the Nile, as well as everything that was somehow connected with its ebb and flow. But did the natural conditions of Egypt really affect life so much?

The narrative of the Arab historian in the 12th century is based on materials of historically preserved sources. In one year the drought was strong, "it seemed that the monster wanted to destroy all life and livelihoods." People lost hope for a spill, resulting in prices of food jumped. The population rebelled, it knew about imminent famine and possible death.

The situation was aggravated by intense heat, which caused an epidemic from numerous corpses. The poor began to eat dogs, cats, dead animals and people, their own feces and dung. Some cooked and baked small children.

The story, of course, causes horror, but it becomes clear why the ancient Egyptians so much worshiped the river and were very happy when it spilled.

Transport artery

The river served as the main transport artery in the state, as it flowed through the whole country. It was possible to swim not only along the current from the south to the north, but also vice versa, since the north and northwestern winds often blew, allowing the sail to be used in the opposite direction.

What natural conditions of Ancient Egypt were favorable in addition to the Nile and spills? Further we will answer this question.

Oasis

The Egyptians lived not only in the Nile valley, but also in small oases scattered around it - paradise islets of greenery and moisture among an endless lifeless desert. The largest of these - Fayumskie oasis in the East of the country. They had an area of about 2 thousand square meters. Km.

Oases were autonomous territories within the state, as it was easy for them to not reach through the miles of the dead desert. Very many perished in them, trying to find them or, on the contrary, get out. This proves that the Egyptians sent their criminals to the oases and kept them there without any protection.

Natural conditions of Egypt (grade 5, history): flora and fauna in antiquity

The plant and animal life in antiquity was quite different, richer than now.

In the spring, wild donkeys, bison, giraffes, wild boars in the Nile swamps, gazelles and giraffes, leopards and lions, and Berberian sheep were found in the valley. In the river were crocodiles, hippopotamus, numerous species of fish. All this allowed to diversify the diet of residents, to supply fish and game to the market.

From the plants grew palm trees, lotuses, papyrus, acacia, tamarisk, fig tree. This made it possible to eat dates, figs, make paper (papyrus), use plants in medicine.

Useful resources

Nature has awarded Egypt not only with favorable soil, plant and animal life, but also inexhaustible reserves of building stone: limestone, sandstone, granite, basalt, translucent alabaster, sodium (mica used in embalming). In Nubia and in the East there were rich deposits of gold, not far from the Egyptians at Sinai - significant deposits of copper ore.

The materials that were imported into the country were few: tin, silver and cedar.

Conclusion

We answered the question, what natural conditions in ancient Egypt allowed the existence of civilization. Let's sum up. The rich resources of the country and the floods of the Nile greatly simplified the life of the Egyptians. That is why the civilization developed here quickly, unlike, for example, from other regions, whose inhabitants were constantly on the verge of life and death. But at the same time, such conditions preserve the development of science and technology.

The harsh conditions of life of other peoples force us to find other, more sophisticated instruments of labor, to seek new materials, advance science. This leads to the development of military equipment, the improvement of weapons. All this influenced the history of Ancient Egypt, whose wars in light armor with copper peaks and axes collided with better weapons of other countries.