How the Nile Shaped Ancient Egypt

Protection

Document A: Was Egypt vulnerable to foreign invaders: No because geographical barriers from the north to south and east to west protected Egypt. - Miles and miles of desert that many armies didn't want to cross over

Identify the factors that made it fertile

BE Q's: Irrigation created a way that people could farm without waiting on unpredictable floods to fertilize and provide water for the land. - Floods made the soil fertile

Geography

Document A: Settlement is almost all the way immersed in the delta and a river valley. The settlement clings to the river. One, people needed fresh water for drinking, bathing, cooking. Two, the river was the water source for crop irrigation. Three, The Nile provided a highway for travel and trade, and provided fish to eat and mud to make bricks. - Unpredictable flooding - An extremely high Nile (destroy communities and crops by drowning them); an extremely low Nile (cause extreme drought and mass food shortage)

Source of food and Farming cycles

Document B: The Nile's cycle determined the Egyptian calendar and the river set the agricultural cycle of farmers' work load and their crop growth while the extent of flooding was the factor that determined if the crops succeed or failed. - Differences in seasons: They had 3 4-month seasons as opposed to 4 3-month seasons

Transportation

Document C: The Nile was the equivalent to our U.S 95. With it they could move goods, as well as people up or down the river. They could move crops from places of surplus to places of famine. River transport extremely enhanced trade. The Nile made a national economy possible. - Mummified body? - They are traveling south, the current also flows to north and tugs are used to pull the barge against the current - Oarsmen and sailors, boat builders, sail makers, fishermen, farmers who relied on transport for trade, gov. officials who relied on transport for tax payments, stone cutters who needed transport for better market

Trade

Document C: They could move crops from places of surplus to places of famine. River transport extremely enhanced trade. The Nile made a national economy possible. - Artisans that need trade for a better market