Egypt would be an unsuitable place to live if it was not for the Nile river. The Nile river is a very interesting in that it is one of the biggest rivers and that it flows in the opposite direction. The pharaonic civilization heavily depends on the Nile river for agriculture, wealth, and other resources. The text mentions without the flooding of the river Kemet, “the black land” would not exist. There would be no fertile land. Egypt civilization would not thrive without the Nile river.
In the 1960’s they built a dam to control the Nile rivers flooding. The dam has several benefits such as preventing the destruction of villages. However, the dam has some downfalls. Before the dam, the river flood brought nutrient rich silts, but now the nutrients is blocked by the dam. Egypt has to use artificial fertilizer for its agricultural needs. In addition, the dam does not clean out the salts like the river flooding did. The salts build up and slowly deteriorate stone monuments. Was the dam worth constructing? In the long run I would say no. The dam will destroy many ancient marvels and it will be difficult to reconstruct or preserve them. The biggest reason however is the accessibility to fresh water. With the build up salts, the water will no longer be suitable for drinking as is. Egypt is already short on water compared to other places in the world. They hardly have any rain. The Nile river is their main source for fresh water. Most of Egypt lives near this river and with the build up of salt in the soil their food resources will be harder to grow, which can cause a shortage of food supply. With the increase of population this would be difficult to overcome.
Ancient Egyptian’s diet was something that I found interesting. The main crops in their agriculture were emmer, wheat, and barley otherwise known as cereal crops. It makes sense why Egyptians main diet consisted of bread and beer. Even though, Egyptians had access to other animals fish was the main source of protein. Cattle was often used as sacrifice in temples and only available to people ranked with high status. Other animals were not hunted for food only as enjoyment of the sport. Date palms were very abundant in Egypt, yet they are not native. They do not know when the first date palm was brought to Egypt. It was a surprise to me that Egypt can grow many different types of foods. From all the readings, I learned there is more to Egypt than pyramids and mummies.
I chose to comment on your blog post because I very much agree with your statement on how you think that it was not worth building the dam. The points you made about how Egypt has to use fertilizer and other means to grow crops now definitely makes sense (I was wondering what techniques they used now). I also have to add to that statement that now they are relying on artificial means to grow crops and not the natural ways that worked for thousands and thousands of years, they are going to get fertilizer and pesticide buildup in the nile river which will do many harmful things. First of all, it will contribute to the limited clean water access to present day Egyptians because any water that they need for drinking, cooking, bathing, or cleaning, will have to now go through a purification system to prevent illness or serious burns. Second, all of the pesticides flowing through the Nile river will dump out into the Mediterranean creating a dead zone around the Delta and thus, greatly affecting the fishing industry of not only the Egyptians but everybody else who relies greatly on the catches made daily there. Lastly, all of the negative causes that have resulted from the building of the dam (except maybe the destruction of ancient monuments but have probably hurt the tourism industry) contribute to the increasing problem of climate change. The natural phenomena that occurred for thousands of years is now trying to be controlled by the human race and while it has brought some benefits, like you I definitely think the consequences outweigh the benefits.