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The presence of The Nile
influenced the history of Egypt which would have been a
desert (like the Libyan, Arab and Nubian ones) but due to
the Nile an antique developed culture was born.
The fertile land of the Nile
Valley made possible the development of the agriculture
through its floods and through the transported mud the
fertility of the soil was improved. The Existence of the
Nile favored the building of the pyramids from the North
Egypt through the water transportation of the huge stone
blocks that were in the South Egypt. The Egyptians loved the
Nile.
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This was their source of
life. They were anxious every year waiting its floods, and
more, they prayed that the Nile` s waters to get to their
houses.
Why? Because the Nile, after
its retirement of the waters, used to let a mud that it was
very fertile. This was helping the agriculture very much.
But the Nile was also very useful to something else.
It was a very good professor for the
Egyptians. It taught them how to canalize the waters of the
Nile to the hills and that` s how they built some ingenious
things like the Archimedes` spiral.
Observing the stars in
order to observe the date of the floods` beginning, they gat
strong knowledge of astronomy, and because the water and the
hills had to be exactly measured to calculate the water` s
canalization, they established the basics of geometry.
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The old Egyptians have been monitoring the Nile` s
floods for thousands of years.
They observed that
the Nile increases its waters when the most shinny
star on the sky, Sirius, appears in the sky, in the
middle of July, in the noon, after a long period
when it could not be seen.
The Egyptians knew from
the old times that the waters had to remain only a
certain period of time on hills. The rest was
canalized forward, and if there it still was too
much water, the process was repeated.
They also knew
that the Nile was a very good way of communication.
Early, they started to build ships with which they
travel over the Nile. |
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The Nile`s waters as well as
the wells, canals and lakes was used in purification,
washing and rituals. In the
ancient Egypt there were some goddesses and gods associated
with the river Nile that were worshiped. The Nile` s
principal god was Hapy, also called Hapy, the gods1 father.
He was represented as a male with belly and full breast,
painted blue or black, and as a symbol of the fertility
offered by Nile to Egypt.
Hapy was represented holding
fruits, fish, flowers, vegetables and fowl. The
crocodile-god Sobek was other Nile` s god, worshiped in Kom,
Esna, Faiyum and Ombo. Khnum was the god of the flooding and
of the inundation; he was ram-headed and worshiped at Aswan.
His wife was Satet, also a goddess. The water` s goddess was
Heket, a frog represented close to Khnum.
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