Ancient Egypt is known for a lot of things, but canals? Not so much. Egyptians are known today as revolutionary agriculturalists, warriors, aw-inspiring architecturalists, and great rulers. Without the knowledge and power to build canals, it would have been an even greater fete to accomplish all of these things. In my paper I would like to find out how the Ancient Egyptians used canals to grow crops, how they used canals to build monuments, tombs, pyramids, and temples, how they used canals for trade and commerce, and how they used canals to transport people such as soldiers. Archaeological evidence for canal use is shown at many sites throughout Egypt including places such as the Giza plateau and where the Suez canal is today. The earliest written record of canal digging comes from about 3,100 BC. Reliefs depict the Scorpion king (Predynastic times) holding a hoe and ceremoniously cutting a ditch in a series of grid networks (Sandra Postel, Egypt’s Nile Valley Basin Irrigation, waterhistory.org). Since then, Egyptians have continued to use canals to direct water from the Nile to use elsewhere. In Ancient Egyptian times, canals were thought to have ranged greatly in size and varied in use. When studying the Ancient Egyptian civilization, canals are important because without them, many of the things that they are known for would have been either impossible or even way more challenging than they already were. Canals allowed people to direct water greater distances away from the Nile River so that they could produce more food to sustain a greater population. With an abundance of food, not everyone needed to farm which led to craft specialization. In turn, people who were specialized in a certain craft were commissioned by the upper class and rulers to create beautiful temples, tombs, and even the Great Pyramids. How the Great Pyramids were built is still a mystery. However, archaeologists now believe that canals were dug leading from the Nile and stopping yards away from the pyramids to transport large stones and other equipment used in the construction (AERA, On the Waterfront: Canals and Harbors in the Time of Giza Pyramid-Building, aeraweb.org).  The first major shipping canal was built under Pepi I during the 6th Dynasty to move Egyptian soldiers into Nubia to keep their hold over the Nubians and from there more were built and maintained by the Egyptian government. Known today as the Suez canal, the easternmost branch of the Nile was naturally connected to the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea. Over time, it became silted up and was no longer useable. By the 12th Dynasty, Pharaohs had turned this into a canal to keep their trade relations with other nations open. However, it closed several times due to lack of control held by the pharaoh and was later left to be maintained by a Persian king (Canals for Shipping in Ancient Egypt, reshafim.org).

References

“Canals.” Canals for Shipping in Ancient Egypt, www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/canals.htm.

Janick, Jules. “Ancient Egyptian Agriculture and the Origins of Horticulture.” Acta Horticulturae, www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?session=9376.

“On the Waterfront: Canals and Harbors in the Time of Giza Pyramid-Building.” Www.aeraweb.org, www.aeraweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AG15_1_2.pdf.

Postel, Sandra. “Pillar of Sand.” Egypt’s Nile Valley Basin Irrigation, www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/t1.html.