Photograph of the Nile River

The Nile is the basis of Egypt’s very life and wealth. It is the only river to flow northwards across the Sahara. Egypt was unique as an agricultural community in not being dependent on rainfall. The secret was the black silt deposited on the fields by the annual flood caused when the Blue Nile was swollen by the run-off from the winter rains in Ethiopia. This silt was remarkably fertile. Irrigation waters, raised laboriously from the river, let the Egyptians produce many varieties of crops in large quantities (Gn 42:1-2; Nm 11:5). If the winter rains failed, the consequent small or nonexistent inundation resulted in disastrous famine: some are recorded as lasting over a number of years (Gn 41). This photo shows the striking contrast between the ribbon of land in which the rich silt was deposited annually and the desert-like land in the background.