Egyptian Geography Flashcards
What is “the gift of the Nile”?
Egypt - without the Nile (and its gift), there would be no Egyptian civilization.
What is the name of the river that runs through Egypt?
The Nile River
What modern country occupies the land of Ancient Egypt?
Egypt. duh.
Why were there fewer invasions of Ancient Egypt than in Mesopotamia?
There were many natural barriers (deserts) that protected the Egyptians from outsiders. One of my middle school language arts teachers taught me that “dessert” has two s’s because it stands for “strawberry shortcake.” The word “desert” as in a sandy desert, only has one s. No clever way of remembering that one.
What were cataracts?
Rough spots made up of boulders and rapids in the Nile River. They prevented boats from sailing all the way up the Nile River.
What is irrigation?
Irrigation is the act of getting water to your crops.
What device helped the Ancient Egyptians irrigate their crops?
Shadoof (or Shaduf) shown here.
What is a river delta?
The triangular portion of land at the mouth of a river.
What is the Nile Delta?
The fertile, triangular region of land at the mouth of the Nile River. This is where the Nile splits into many smaller rivers before flowing into the Mediterranean Sea.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded unpredictably, which could wreck havoc on Mesopotamian farms and villages. How did this compare to the flooding of the Nile?
The Nile flooded very gently and at the same time each year. In fact, the Egyptians based their calendar off of the dependable flooding.
If a mummy came back to life, it would tell you, among other things, that the flooding of the Nile River was a good thing for Egypt. Why?
TRICK QUESTION! Reincarnated mummies can’t speak English or any other modern languages.
But if it did, it would say that the flooding spread silt, or fertile mud, over the fields. This helped their crops grow.
