In This Section You Will

Prepare to Read Objectives Key Terms -.:._\:!I TargetReading In this section you will • Nubia (Noo bee uh) Skill 1. Find out how the geography of n. an ancient region the Nile changes as the river Use Context Clues in the Nile River runs its course. When reading, you Valley, on the site of 2. Learn about the types of may come across an present-day southern communities that first appeared unfamiliar word, or a Egypt and nothern along the Nile, and how the Nile Sudan was used for trade. word that is used in an unfamiliar way. Look • cataract (KAT uh rakt) n. Taking Notes for clues in the context-the a large waterfall; As you read, note the effects the Nile surrounding words, any strong flood or had on the growth of communities and sentences, and rush of water trade. Copy the chart below, and use it paragraphs-to help • delta (DEL tuh) n. a to record your findings. you understand the plain at the mouth meaning. Look at the of a river, formed when sediment is The context for the Nile word sediment on page deposited by River 72 flowing water I in the paragraph • silt (silt) n. fine soil that begins with found on river The Gifts of bottoms . the Nile. What do I you think sediment Geography I Communities! means? Trade

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I { I T an Herodotus (huh RAHD uh tus) "Egypt is h the gift of the Nile." Herodotus explored Egypt e in 400s B.C. On his journey, he saw the life- G giving r of its great river. He traveled upriver e until he stopped by churning rapids of e white water. Forced turn back, he never k found the source of the river. h Herodotus wrote down his i observations of s and other lands. His writings still t make ;ntPrPstlll reading today. Despite his o failure to locate the source .· the Nile, r Herodotus had learned a basic truth: i · would be no Egypt without the Nile. R i v e r

L i f e An Egyptian uses a throwstick, a sort of boomerang, to hunt for birds from his boat. Analyze Images What gifts of the Nile are shown in this painting? 68 History of Our World Ill II I I IIIII II

) n. I Nubia1S Resources of The Course of the Nile River Nubian princes bring gifts of gold to an Egyptian ruler. Infer How did Jain The Nile River is the world's longest river. It flows north from its geography help link the cultures of rer, sources in East Africa to the Mediterranean Sea for more than Egypt and Nubia? :!nt 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers). That is about the distance from ng New York to Alaska. The Nile has two main sources. The Blue Nile rises in the highlands of the present-day country of Ethiopia and races down to the desert in thundering totrents. The White Nile is calmer. It begins deep in East Africa and flows northward through swamps. The two rivers meet in the present-day country of Sudan. There, the Nile begins its journey through desert lands to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nile Through Ancient Nubia Just north of the point where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet, the Nile makes two huge bends. It forms an S shape 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in length. The northern tip of the S is at the city of Aswan in Egypt. · r.um"' this st etch of the Nile was Nubia, an anCient region ir. the River valley. The Nubian section of tl;le Nile contained six cataracts, or crucK-illJiea rapids. Between the first and second cataracts was Nubia. In that region, the desert and granite mountains the riverbanks, leaving very little land for farming. Because rarely rained in Lower Nubia, people had to live close to the for their water supply. Farther south, between the second and sixth cataracts, lies the that was known as Upper Nubia. In that region, rain does Chapter 3 Section 1 69 so people could plant in the fall and then harvest in the But the farmland was in a very narrow strip, no more than (3 kilometers) wide on each side of the river. I I The Nile Through Ancient Egypt The Nile ran for about Bl 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) through ancient Egypt, from the th, First Cataract at Aswan to the Mediterranean Sea. On its way, it da passed through a narrow region called Upper Egypt. This fertile th strip had an average width of around 6 miles (10 kilometers) on ur each side of the river. In the north, the Nile spread out to foi:m a W< fertile, marshy area called Lower Egypt. Deserts stretched on each co side of the river's green banks. . At the end of the Nile in the north, the river split into several d€ "'•ts1<\* InUsing the paragraphContext Cluesat the streams that flowed to the Mediterranean Sea. These streams Ia· right, sediment is described as formed an area called the delta. A delta is a plain at the mouth D being mineral rich and carried a river. The flowing water deposited mineral-rich Iii by water. If you read ahead, Because of this, the Nile delta contained very fertile farmland. d< you will learn that silt is a kind of sediment What is the mean The Gifts of the Nile Every spring, far away in the "'t:,mauu> D ing of sediment? of Africa, waters began to rush downstream. As they flowed, N brought a rich, fertile sediment called silt. Silt is fine soil on river bottoms. By late summer, the Nile spilled over its EP' all the way to the delta. The floodwaters deposited a thick 0 I ; layer silt, making the land ideal for farming. In gratitude, the tians prai ed Hapi (HAH pea), the god of the Nile:

, _Hail to y(n.l:o' Nile, flows from·....•..,.•.u•;'· -· - " ' . keep Egypt . . wl:to out Black Land and Red Land The ancient Egyptians called the their land Kemet (KEH met), "the black land," because of the r, it dark soil left by the Nile's floods. The timing of the floods and tile the height of the floodwaters might vary from year to year. But on unlike the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians usually did not have to rna worry about flash floods. Dry years were rare in Egypt, but they Geography and Civilization In the large photo below, you can see ach could cause famine. the date palms and fields that line Beyond the fertile river banks lay the "red land;' the vast the Nile River near the city of Luxor. era! · desert. It spread out on either side of the river. Most of the The small photo shows the desert landscape that surrounds the Nile. liDS Sahara lay to the west, and the part of the Sahara called the Analyze Images Compare the two hof Eastern Desert lay to the east. These lands were not friendly to ent: photos. What are the challenges of human life. They were useless for farming. Only those who living in the desert? What are the knew the deserts well dared travel over this blistering-hot land. advantages of living along the Nile?

Desert Protection The hot sands shielded Egypt and Nubia from foreign attacks. That was a protection Meso potamia did not have. The land ]:>etween the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was wide open to outsiders. The people of Mesopotamia often facd invasions. Over a period of 2,000 years, th.e people of ancfent Egypt and Nubia faced invasions. Yet they were not isolated. The Nile valley to'vided. .a path trade with .prov !f.d ·a"q ss.The Medj.- . ''· The Growth of Communities and Trade Along the Nile Settled hunting and fishing conununities may have appeared in Nubia around 6000 B.C. Unlike the communities of the Fertile Crescent that settled after taking up agriculture, the Nubians formed settlements before they began to farm. Settled farming communities began to appear in both Egypt and Nubia sometime around 5000 B.C. As these communities grew, trade also expanded. Living Along the Nile Egypt's early farming communities Saving Monuments To con trol flooding, the Egyptians settled in the delta and valley regions of the Nile. The people of built the Aswan High Dam on the delta built villages around the fertile river beds. Their homes the Nile Ri.\i'er in the 1960s. were built of straw or of bricks made from a mix of mud and The water held back by the straw. To the south, in Upper Egypt, people built scattered farmc dam created Lake Nasser. During its creation, Lake ing villages along the banks of the Nile. Nasser threatened to flood Nubia had less farmland along the Nile than Egypt. Because of ancient monuments that had the shortage of farmland, Nubians added to their diet by fishing been carved in the cliffs ip the Nile and hunting ducks and other birds along its banks. above tne Nubian Nile. Egypt, with the help of about 50 nations, savecj some of the monuments. At a site called

Abu Simbel, the temple of / Ramses II (below) was saved. Workers cut the temple into blocks. They movetl the blocks to higher ground and then rebuilt the temple. A Highway for Trade In Egypt, the Nile was used to transport goods. Ships could travel north on the Nile because it was moving downriver. But they could also sail !din upriver with the help of the winds that blew toward the ertile south. Other trade links ran east across the desert to the t>ians Red Sea ports or to Mesopotamia. Caravans loaded with ming gold, silver, copper, and fine pottery traveled the over !time land trade routes. Valuable goods such as cedar from the 1ded. eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and gold from Nubia were sold in the bazaars of Egypt's towns. nities Jle of· Routes Through Nubia Because of the cataracts, people omes could not travel through Nubia by river. Instead, the Nubians l and• developed trade routes over land. The Nubians became famous traders of the ancient world. They carried goods from central Africa and Nubia into Egypt and southwestern Asia and brought other goods back. One Nubian caravan that traveled into Egypt had 300 don keys. The donkeys carried ebony wood, ivory from elephant tusks, ostrich feathers and eggs, and panther skins. Another Nubians traded many valuable · popular object was a throwstick, a type of boomerang that goods.This Nubian bronze mirror Af.·ir-'"" used for hunting. with a gilt silver handle, from about 700 o.c., was found in How did the Nile operate as a "highway for trade"? present-day Sudan.

1Poni,, {b) the torrents.Ident terms ify Caus of e section. and in Effec sentence t that How did the Reading Nile Skill River word affect torrents the on lives Use of the clues early find Egypt ians and N e Nile from its source Visit: W PHSchool.com u 2 r to the Nile delta. Write { Web Code: lbd-2301 b i a journal entry about i b the changes you notice CG t a ) in_the river as you HS'C i ·nlinehool. n travel. Chapter I n s com 3 d g ? Section {c e For: An activity on the Nile River 1 73 ) n A P t c r i t e f y i d v ic t E i If f t th f y e e S N c u il t p e s p di o d H s n o e o w t t f d h i l a d o t o t d y h e o r u e c N g { a u a r l e a r t l r y a , v e h l o i w n g m i a g l h o t n g l i t f h e