The Nile Valley I

　　The longest river in the world, the Nile, flows thr ough the north-western area of Africa, and then into th e Mediterranean Sea.

　　Great civilizations have always flourished alongsid e rivers, but the Egyptian civilization, which started on the Nile, is the most fascinating and mysterious in the history of mankind.

　　The Nile valley is a fertile one where there is an abundance of water and sun, elements which the ancient Egyptians believed were gods, they called the sun Amon and the Nile Apis.

　　Memphis was the first great capital of Egypt, unite d as a single kingdom in the third millennium B.C.. But the Nile burst its banks a few centuries ago, flooding the ancient capital.

　　The river, however, has given more than it has take n, enough to make Herodotus, the ancient Greek historia n say: Egypt is a gift from the Nile. The annual floods left precious silt on the fields, a miraculous natural fertilizer which made the crops grow luxuriantly.

　　This instrument, called a Nilometer was used by the ancient Pharaohs to establish how high the periodic flo ods would be. The Nilometer, on the presupposition that the harvest would be plentiful, was nothing other than a device for setting income tax level.