THE GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT
IF IT can be said that nature plays favorites, then EGYPT was her favorite Child. There are several geographical features which combine to make this a unique land.
1-An isolated land
Ancient Egypt was isolated from the rest of the world by its Topography. To the west was a vast desert. To the north was the Mediterranean. To the east was the red sea. There were only two points of entry into Egypt aside from sea Routes.
A. The south.
The Nubians to the south of Egypt often proved to be troublesome, but they were rarely a match for the more advanced military of Egypt.
B. The Northeast.
Most of the invaders who came against Egypt Moved down through Palestine and then across the northern section of the Sinai Peninsula. To counter this threat, the Egyptians built a line of fortresses along the western edge of the Sinai.
2. The Nile River.
The Nile is the longest river in the world. It flows from three Branches: The Blue Nile, The White Nile and the Atbara. They join far south of Egypt to become a single river a mile wide. Just as the surrounding deserts and oceans gave Egypt Security, so the Nile gave Egypt prosperity. The Nile was almost wholly responsible for Egypt economy.
A - It made Egypt an agricultural nation.
The Nile River flooded on a regular basis each year, depositing rich sediments on the plains. Crops were planted in the fertile soil as soon as the river had receded. The result was a full harvest.
B - It determined all real estate values.
The value of land was determined by how close to the Nile it was located and whether or not it was flooded annually.
C. It provided transportation.
Ancient Egypt was made up of a long narrow strip of land over 700 miles long and only a few miles wide. The Nile was the unifying factor of Egypt. It provided the best means of north-south transportation. This factor led to the political unity of Egypt very early in her history. The Nile might have also served as a path for invading forces from the south, had it not been for the many waterfalls to the south of Egypt.
3. The climate of Egypt.
Because of the warm climate and the rich, fertile soil, the Egyptians were able to take life rather leisurely .This gave them time to engage in philosophy, religion, and Developments in architecture, astronomy and mathematics.
Egypt sees very little rainfall. Its water comes from the mountains of central Africa, many hundreds of miles to the South. This dry climate has brought the added benefit in the preservation of thousands of monuments and papyrus scrolls.
Many archaeologists used to mistakenly believe that the People of Palestine were mostly illiterate. The truth is that, except for a few areas around the shores of the Dead Sea, papyrus has a very short life span in Palestine due to its high humidity. The absence of papyrus documents in Palestine is not a sign of illiteracy, but only the lack of longevity in the documents.
Egypt did not suffer from this problem. The dry climate was perfect for the preservation of papyrus. It is for this reason that some of our oldest copies of the Bible were found in Egypt. We have already contrasted the geography of the Mesopotamian river valley with that of the Nile, but it would be well to repeat some of those points of contrast.
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