‘Egypt is the gift of the Nile’, wrote Greek historian Herodotus

The Nile’s gift is a layer of fertile soil, replenished annually at the time of the inundation. The Blue Nile conveys the rich silt from the huge catchment area of Ethiopia; an enormous amphitheatre defined by 4,000 metre high mountain peaks. The turbid water churns through canyons and gorges, collecting tributes from the Rihad and Dinder Rivers. Urged northwards by heavy rains and melting snow it cascades over the cataracts of eastern Sudan. On reaching Khartoum the Blue Nile joins its big sister, the White Nile that flows deeply and powerfully northwards from Lake Victoria. The White Nile has travelled nearly 2,000 kilometres to keep its rendezvous at this great confluence, accepting the donation of millions of tons of suspended loam from its tributaries, the Bahr el Ghazal and the Sobat Rivers that drain the swamps of Uganda and southern Sudan. The Blue and White Niles meet and embrace, each surrendering its identity to the single river simply called ‘the Nile’. Pregnant with its riches, the Nile flows resolutely northwards bearing its annual gift to the ancient land of Egypt.

It is 650kms as the falcon flies from the confluence of the two Niles to the Egyptian border, but the Nile inscribes a gigantic ‘S’ on the Sudanese landscape, taking 1,300kms to cover the distance. The river surges through valleys carved by millennia into the lands once called Kush and Wawat, flooding the fields as it flows forward until it confronts and overcomes its final hurdle, the cataract at Aswan. Freed from the constraints of steep banks, the waters relax and spread across the fields of one of the planet’s great fertile valleys. The water level rises daily, monitored and recorded by Priests in dank shafts and dark tunnels built to measure the quantity of each year’s gift. The word goes out and offerings are made to pagan deities to increase their beneficence, for without the flood Egypt will starve. Hapi, the Nile deity responsible for collecting the tears of Isis, responds to the supplications and the dark waters reach further across the fields, lapping at the very steps of great stone temples along its course.

The Nile is unlike the other great rivers of the Northern Hemisphere whose floods are unpredictable and at times devastating. When the bright star Sirius reappears after seventy days of exile below the horizon, the Nile flood arrives. Not if, when or maybe! But right then and there, with the only variable being the strength of the flood. Properties are valued in proportion to their propensity to be flooded and if insurance companies had existed in ancient Egypt, they would have written policies to cover the non-appearance of the flood! Imagine submitting a claim because there was no ‘Act of God’!

The muddy waters inundate the agricultural land and cover it with an opaque blanket. The width of the flooded Nile is measured in tens of kilometres. The river’s forward momentum moderates and the waters lose their ability to carry the massive load of silt. The black mud precipitates to the riverbed, trapping the finely dispersed organic detritus that has been its travelling companion for 4,000 kilometres. Then gradually, almost imperceptibly but with ever increasing rapidity the floodwaters begin to subside. The river draws the water back from the land. Like a guest at a wedding it quietly leaves its gift as it departs. The water is still dark with particles that remain in suspension, but the immense filtration system called the Nile Delta ensures that very little of the rich silt is lost to the Mediterranean Sea.

The subsiding water reveals the first mound of glistening black mud! Its organic stench is quickly reduced as the hot sun bakes a thin crust on its surface. Birds arrive to peck at the crust and uncover the delectable small creatures that believed they had found refuge in the mud. It is the beginning of a new cycle of life. The ancient Egyptians, ever cognisant of its importance, chose the appearance of the primeval mound as the first image in their creation myth.

The water has subsided and the river has contracted to its normal width. The dark fertile ribbon along Egypt’s main artery gives rise to the name of this ancient place, Kemet – the Black Land. Farmers scatter seeds of barley and wheat on the munificent mud. No need to plough or to fertilise. The Nile has done the hard work. All that remains is to watch and wait while the crops grow and ripen under the golden sun. And so it was for more than five thousand years until concrete barriers were built to challenge the natural order and man spurned the gift of the Nile. But that is another story.