Fig. 8.—Egyptian Scene
Part I—The Eastern Nations
CHAPTER III
ANCIENT EGYPT
(From about 5000 to 30 B.C.)
I. The Land and the People
20. Egypt and the Nile.—The Egypt of history comprises the delta of the Nile and the flood plains of its lower course. These rich lands were formed in past geologic ages from the sediment brought down by the river in seasons of flood. The delta was known to the ancients as Lower Egypt, while the valley proper, reaching from the head of the delta to the First Cataract,[1] a distance of six hundred miles, was called Upper Egypt.
Through the same means by which Egypt was originally created is the land each year still renewed and fertilized;[2] hence the Greek
- ↑ About seven hundred miles from the Mediterranean low ledges of rocks stretching across the Nile form the first obstruction to navigation in passing up the river. The rapids found here are termed the First Cataract. At this point the divided river forms the beautiful islet of Philæ, "The Pearl of Egypt."
- ↑ The rate of the fluviatile deposit is from three to five inches in a century. The surface of the valley at Thebes, as shown by the accumulations about the monuments, has been raised about seven feet during the last seventeen hundred years.
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