Rivers In Ancient Egypt

Throughout the entirety of history, rivers have been a staple of civilization. Where water flows, advanced societies follow. This can be seen across the globe. In Egypt, the Nile River helped the Egyptians ascend to one of the great powers of the ancient world. In Southern China, the Yangtze River has allowed the various Chinese dynasties to achieve great accomplishments. Even in our own backyard, the Mississippi River has made trade across the country possible for decades. The same can be said for that of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern day Iraq. The land between these two rivers, Mesopotamia, is where advanced human life first built cities, mastered the art of agriculture, and set up the world’s first trade networks. It was those

Every year in the spring, the Tigris and Euphrates would flood. These yearly floods would completely destroy the irrigation system the had been set up the year before. Because of this, the canals would have to be rebuilt every year after the flooding was over. It is believed that both the marshes surrounding the river and the river itself had high salt levels. This would have caused lots of build up of salt in the soil around the rivers, and may have ultimately led to the downfall of the Mesopotamian civilizations as a whole. Despite these drawbacks from their farming method, the fertile soil brought down from the mountains helped the Sumer and the subsequent civilizations to thrive. Mesopotamia was a crossroads for trade. It connected the eastern civilizations of Asia to the western civilizations like the Anatolia in modern day Turkey. The Tigris and Euphrates were a big part of this economical success. This connection to the outside world allowed Mesopotamian civilizations to receive rare metals and timber (Wandrei, Kevin, 10/27/2016). Materials such as these were usually transported via river. Some seafaring boats could even get timber to the ports of Northern India. Other means of transportation involved caravans that traveled up and through into Eastern Asia and

The earliest known houses in Mesopotamia were built using reeds from the shores of the river, but as cities develop, so does architecture. Builders started to use the endless amount of mud on the riverbed. This mud was sun-baked and dried, before being stacked together to create a building. The typical house was around 10 feet by 12 feet (History World, 10/30/2016). These methods of building were taken to the next level in the form of the famous “Ziggurats”. These were massive temples dedicated to the gods. The pyramid shape of the Ziggurats was created using the same technique as normal housing and buildings in the city, but at a much larger scale. The people of Mesopotamia were very skilled architects and builders, and the rivers that surrounded them played a big role in that. In any major civilization, transportation is must-have. The Mesopotamians achieved this through the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The earliest boats that traveled across the water were very simple. They included flat bottoms, with curved ends, and had masts that were ornate and covered in elaborate designs. These boats allowed them to properly navigate the river and transport goods (Ancientmesopotamians.com, 10/29/16). Due to lack of good shipbuilding timber, wood had to be imported from foreign