![]() ![]() While the Nile was integral to the rise of Egyptian civilization and many of Egypt’s important features were contained within the Nile Valley, Egypt also had communication with the Red Sea to the east via the wadis that cut through the Red Sea Hills. Later in this episode we’ll see how Egypt could well have been the first civilization to develop the sail on a wide level, and it’s likely that the complementary functions of the Nile’s flow and the northerly wind created the perfect situation for the invention and adoption of the sail.īefore we get into the specific examples that give us a window into predynastic Egypt, I also want to mention the fact that Egypt wasn’t purely limited to the north-south matrix of the Nile and into the Mediterranean. In the case of the Nile, this was perfect, since the Nile flows from south to north. The whole of the journey back upstream was generally undertaken with the aid of Egypt’s predominant northerly wind, a wind blowing from north to south. Traveling back upstream, while a bit more difficult, was relatively simple when compared to many other rivers around the globe. This island and the First Cataract were so important because north of Aswan a ship could travel unchecked to the Mediterranean along the free-flowing highway of the Nile, reaching the river’s mouth over 750 miles away. Rather, the First Cataract at Aswan was important because early on in Egyptian history the kings fortified an island they called Abu, an island that sat in the Nile just downstream of the First Cataract and was perfectly located to serve as a choke point and transfer station for cargo being shipped on the Nile. That’s not to say that it was categorically impassable, and pharaohs frequently pushed south into Nubia. The First Cataract at Aswan was the most significant of the six, and during ancient times it was a natural barrier between Egypt to its north and Nubia to its south. Scattered over the course of those several thousand miles before it branches out to drain into the Mediterranean, the Nile is punctuated by six major groups of cataracts, white water rapids or shallow stretches that are mostly impassable by boat except during flood time. It begins somewhere in the mountains of east-central Africa and from there it flows north, out of the mountains and into the desert. The Nile is essentially a strip of oasis stretching for thousands of miles. Sometimes repeated focus on the same point makes it trite, but in the case of Egypt and maritime history, the Nile really is the foundation that made Egypt a great civilization and allowed it to be on the forefront of boat technology as it developed in the ancient world. Some have called it a conduit, other have likened it to a ‘highway,’ and perhaps the most famous description comes from Herodotus where he describes the Nile as a gift-giver bestowing the gift of life upon Egypt itself. If we had to put a date on it, the predynastic Egyptian period stretches back in time from around 3000 BCE, so pre-unification Egypt is roughly concurrent with the periods of Mesopotamia before the Sumerian dynasties.Ī map depicting the course of the Nile River and the locations of its six cataracts.Įven in the mention of an “Upper” and a “Lower” Egypt, the current running under the surface of Egyptian history is present, and of course, that current is the Nile River, the lifeblood of Egyptian civilization for millennia. We left Mesopotamia at a point near the decline that ensued after Hammurabi’s death, but as we enter Egypt our discussion will begin at a time prior to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, a time before the dynastic divisions by which we organize our understanding of the ancient Egyptians. We’re now going to turn the focus of our discussion from the maritime exploits of Mesopotamia over to the land of the pharaohs, and as we do so we’re going to turn back the clock from where it stood when we finished our look at Mesopotamia. It's a great episode, and it's only scratching the surface of what we'll encounter as we consider maritime history in ancient Egypt. We'll conclude by looking at a magnificent discovery at Abydos where some of the oldest wooden planked boats to have ever been found were buried in their own graves in the Egyptian desert. ![]() Then, we'll consider a theory that has connected ancient Egypt with ancient Mesopotamia. In this episode we'll focus mainly on the predynastic depictions of papyrus boats, wooden boats, the earliest depictions of the sail, and several rock petroglyphs that are quite significant to historical interpretations. ![]()
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