Egyptian Environment

Water from the Nile makes it possible to grow crops in Egypt, especially grain (wheat and barley) and beans (like lentils or chickpeas).

The way this worked in antiquity was that every year it would rain so much in the highlands of Ethiopia that the Nile river would flood. Most of Egypt flooded every year in the late summer and fall (earlier in the south and later in the north). The flood waters were full of good black dirt (silt), carried down the river from central Africa by the flood. The flood waters would eventually go back into the river (after a few weeks), leaving the silt on the fields. This was a great natural fertilizer.
The rest of the year, while the crops were growing, people got water from the Nile River to their fields in canals and irrigation ditches that they dug with picks and shovels. As soon as you are too far from the Nile to get the water to the fields, it turns back into desert again (as you can see in the picture).

To find out more about the Egyptian environment, check out these books on Amazon.com or in your local library:

Farming & Food (The Ancient Egyptians), by Jane Shuter (1998). For kids.

Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt, by Lionel Casson (revised edition 2001). Not especially for kids, but pretty entertaining reading, and Casson knows what he's talking about.

Animals in Egypt
Plants in Egypt
Main Egyptian page
Main Environment page