Start of Pyramid on the Nile Notes

Here are a some notes I took today on the new section we are starting called Pyramid on the Nile. The Nile River flows northward across Africa for over 4,100 miles, the longest river in the world. Goes through the present-day Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia. There is fertile land around the river, so settlements were made there. Fertile soil to desert – black land to red land. In July it rains and causes melting snow from mountains in East Africa causing overflow of river. When it recedes in October rich deposits of fertile black mud called silt is left behind. Peasants prepared wheat and barley in fields, during fall and winter they watered their crops from a network of irrigation ditches. Egyptians worshipped the God of the Nile. The Nile was predictable and worked like clockwork unlike the Tigris and Euphrates. Three environmental challenges Egyptians faced with the Nile: floodwaters a few feet lower than normal, fresh silt was greatly reduced. Thousands would starve. More notes tomorrow!