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114-622: The history of Egypt has been long and wealthy, due to the flow of the Nile River with its fertile banks and delta , as well as the accomplishments of Egypt 's native inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypt's ancient history was unknown until Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the discovery and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone . Among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

228-866: A Neolithic culture had taken root in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt . The Badari culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt . The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimde , predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during

342-669: A constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system . Saad Zaghlul was popularly elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936, the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability due to remaining British influence and increasing political involvement by the king led to the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'état known as the 1952 Revolution . The Free Officers Movement forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad . British military presence in Egypt lasted until 1954. On 18 June 1953,

456-433: A Turkish officer, Selim Bimbashi, were made between 1839 and 1842, and two got to the point about 30 kilometres (20 miles) beyond the present port of Juba , where the country rises and rapids make navigation very difficult. Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while traveling with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate

570-736: A distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." Modern exploration of the Nile basin began with the conquest of the northern and central Sudan by the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali , and his sons from 1821 onward. As a result of this, the Blue Nile was known as far as its exit from the Ethiopian foothills and the White Nile as far as the mouth of the Sobat River. Three expeditions under

684-462: A factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over 8,212 m /s (290,000 cu ft/s) occurred during late August and early September, and minimum flows of about 552 m /s (19,500 cu ft/s) occurred during late April and early May. The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of discharge. The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin

798-600: A form of monolatry rather than of monotheism . Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later ruled and invaded by Libyans , Nubians and Assyrians , but native Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained control of their country. In the sixth century BC, the Achaemenid Empire conquered Egypt. The entire Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt , from 525 BC to 402 BC, save for Petubastis III and possibly Psammetichus IV ,

912-589: A large military establishment. He believed capitalist economic policies would build a substantial private sector , and alliance with the United States and the West would lead to prosperity ( rakhaa رخاء ) and eventually democratic pluralism. Infitah was not only ideologically but also politically motivated : by aligning himself with the capitalist West, and the rich and powerful members of Egyptian society, Sadat differentiated himself from his predecessor Nasser while at

1026-524: A steep decline in favor of Arabic culture (though Coptic managed to last as a spoken language until the 17th century and remains a liturgical language today). The Mamluks continued to govern the country until the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire . The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 40% of the population of Egypt. After

1140-521: A system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service. The introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton, the Egyptian variety of which became notable, transformed its agriculture into a cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century. The social effects of this were enormous: land ownership became concentrated and many foreigners arrived, shifting production towards international markets. British indirect rule lasted from 1882, when

1254-461: Is an archaeological site located in alluvial deposits formed by an ancient channel of the Nile in the Affad region of southern Dongola Reach , Sudan. There are two theories about the age of the integrated Nile. One is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age and that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly of which fed a river following

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1368-625: Is approximately 1,218 m /s (43,000 cu ft/s) in October and minimum flow is about 609 m /s (21,500 cu ft/s) in April. This fluctuation is caused by the substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat, which has a minimum flow of about 99 m /s (3,500 cu ft/s) in March and a peak flow of over 680 m /s (24,000 cu ft/s) in October. During the dry season (January to June)

1482-552: Is called the Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt, thus starting another period of pharaohs of Persian origin. A team led by Johannes Krause managed the first reliable sequencing of the genomes of 90 mummified individuals in 2017. Whilst not conclusive, because of the non-exhaustive time frame and restricted location that the mummies represent, their study nevertheless showed that these Ancient Egyptians "closely resembled ancient and modern Near Eastern populations, especially those in

1596-673: Is in Egypt. Below the Aswan Dam , at the northern limit of Lake Nasser, the Nile resumes its historic course. North of Cairo , the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the Rosetta Branch to the west and the Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta . The annual sediment transport by the Nile in Egypt has been quantified. Below the confluence with

1710-558: Is the Great Pyramid of Giza . Ancient Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first king of the First Dynasty , Narmer . Predominantly native Egyptian rule lasted until the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC. In 332 BC, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered Egypt as he toppled

1824-568: Is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 square kilometers (200,000 sq mi) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m /s (71 cu ft/s) annually, because tremendous volumes of water are lost in the Sudd wetlands. The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, 225,000 km (86,900 sq mi), but contributes 412 cubic meters per second (14,500 cu ft/s) annually to

1938-534: Is traditionally considered to be the headwaters stream. However, the Blue Nile is the source of most of the water of the Nile downstream, containing 80% of the water and silt . The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region. It begins at Lake Victoria and flows through Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet at

2052-686: The Anglo-Egyptian War . After the end of World War I and following the Egyptian revolution of 1919 , the Kingdom of Egypt was established. While a de jure independent state, the United Kingdom retained control over foreign affairs, defense, and other matters. British occupation lasted until 1954, with the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 1954 . The modern Republic of Egypt was founded in 1953, and with

2166-772: The Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Sasanian Egypt (known in Middle Persian sources as Agiptus ) refers to the brief rule of Egypt and parts of Libya by the Sasanian Empire , which lasted from 619 to 629, until the Sasanian rebel Shahrbaraz made an alliance with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and had control over Egypt returned to him. The Byzantines were able to regain control of

2280-620: The Democratic Republic of the Congo , Tanzania , Burundi , Rwanda , Uganda , Kenya , Ethiopia , Eritrea , South Sudan , Sudan , and Egypt . In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan. The Nile is an important economic driver supporting agriculture and fishing. The Nile has two major tributaries : the White Nile and the Blue Nile . The White Nile

2394-599: The Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser  – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest . Nasser assumed power as president in June 1956. British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. He nationalized

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2508-726: The Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes . The New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire from Syria to Upper Nubia . This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs , including Hatshepsut , Thutmose III , Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti , Tutankhamun and Ramesses II . The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism , although some consider Atenism to be

2622-573: The Ethiopian Empire and was defeated twice at Gundet in 1875 and again at the Battle of Gura in 1876. Within three years this led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the Government." Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European intrusion led to the formation of

2736-570: The Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). In 1517, Ottoman sultan Selim I captured Cairo, absorbing Egypt into the Ottoman Empire. Egypt remained entirely Ottoman until 1805, except during French occupation from 1798 to 1801. Starting in 1867, Egypt became a nominally autonomous tributary state called the Khedivate of Egypt . However, Khedivate Egypt fell under British control in 1882 following

2850-557: The Muslim conquest . The native Egyptian/Coptic culture continued to exist as well (the Coptic language itself was Egypt's most widely spoken language until at least the 10th century). Egypt quickly became the Empire's breadbasket supplying the greater portion of the Empire's grain in addition to flax, papyrus, glass and many other finished goods. The city of Alexandria became a key trading outpost for

2964-581: The Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishermen was replaced by a grain -grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 6000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt , forming the Sahara . Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. By about 6000 BC,

3078-852: The October War , a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights . It was an attempt to regain part of the Sinai territory that Israel had captured six years earlier. Sadat hoped to seize some territory through military force, and then regain the rest of the peninsula by diplomacy. The conflict sparked an international crisis between the US and the USSR, both of whom intervened. The second UN-mandated ceasefire halted military action. While

3192-634: The Paleogene and Neogene Periods (66 million to 2.588 million years ago) a series of separate closed continental basins each occupied one of the major parts of the Sudanese Rift System: Mellut rift , White Nile rift , Blue Nile rift , Atbara rift and Sag El Naam rift . The Mellut Basin is nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamp which forms

3306-763: The River Nile or Nile River ) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa . It flows into the Mediterranean Sea . The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river in the world , though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer. Of the world's major rivers, the Nile is one of the smallest, as measured by annual flow in cubic metres of water. About 6,650 km (4,130 mi) long, its drainage basin covers eleven countries:

3420-456: The discharge at any given point along the main stem depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation and evapotranspiration , and groundwater flow. Upstream from Khartoum (to the south), the river is known as the White Nile , a term also used in a limited sense to describe the section between Lake No and Khartoum. At Khartoum, the river is joined by the Blue Nile . The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and

3534-430: The dry season ) an appreciable incoming surface flow for many kilometres upstream, and found a new source, giving the Nile a length of 6,758 km (4,199 mi). The White Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda , as the "Victoria Nile." It flows north for some 130 kilometers (81 mi) to Lake Kyoga . The last part of the approximately 200 kilometers (120 mi) river section starts from

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3648-628: The middle class under the Nasser regime through education and jobs as doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, journalists for the government or parastatals , were left stuck in an "increasingly marginalized, stagnant and low-paying public sector," under Infitah. Infitah was a shock to the Nasser-era middle class, reversing the socialist principles of Nasserism, seeming to revoke policies of free education, social equality, abolition of feudalism , nationalization of land and industry, and progressive taxation . At

3762-599: The 15th century, the Ottoman invasion pushed the Egyptian system into decline. The defensive militarization damaged its civil society and economic institutions. The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of the plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade. Egypt suffered six famines between 1687 and 1731. The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population. The brief French invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte began in 1798. The campaign eventually led to

3876-733: The 1967 Six-Day War , Israel invaded and occupied Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip , which Egypt had occupied since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . Three years later (1970), President Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat . Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while clamping down on religious and secular opposition. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched

3990-524: The Achaemenids and established the short-lived Macedonian Empire , which gave rise to the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom , founded in 305 BC by one of Alexander's former generals, Ptolemy I Soter . The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome . The death of Cleopatra ended

4104-494: The Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called Lake No , after which the Nile becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad , or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. When the Nile floods it leaves a rich silty deposit which fertilizes the soil. The Nile no longer floods in Egypt since the completion of the Aswan Dam in 1970. An anabranch river, the Bahr el Zeraf , flows out of

4218-624: The Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift . The source of the Blue Nile is Lake Tana in the Gish Abay region in the Ethiopian Highlands . The source of the White Nile, even after centuries of exploration, remains in dispute. The most remote source that is indisputably a source for the White Nile is the Kagera River ; however,

4332-451: The Blue Nile the only major tributary is the Atbarah River , also known as the Red Nile. Roughly halfway to the sea, it originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana , and is around 800 kilometers (500 mi) long. The Atbarah flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very rapidly. During the dry period of January to June, it typically dries up north of Khartoum . The Blue Nile ( Amharic : ዓባይ , ʿĀbay ) springs from Lake Tana in

4446-406: The British succeeded in defeating the Egyptian Army at Tel el-Kebir in September and took control of the country, to the 1952 Egyptian revolution which made Egypt a republic and when British advisers were expelled. Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863). Abbas I

4560-419: The Congo, but the Nile is not a border river at this point. After leaving Lake Albert, the river continues north through Uganda and is known as the Albert Nile . The White Nile flows into South Sudan just south of Nimule , where it is known as the Bahr al Jabal ("Mountain River" ). Just south of the town is the confluence with the Achwa River . The Bahr al Ghazal , 716 kilometers (445 mi) long, joins

4674-431: The Delta, and would have been pronounced ni-lo-he in the area around Memphis in the 8th century BCE. Hesiod at his Theogony refers to Nilus (Νεῖλος) as one of the Potamoi (river gods), son of Oceanus and Tethys . Another derivation of Nile might be related to the term Nil ( Sanskrit : नील , romanized :  nila ; Egyptian Arabic : نيلة ), which refers to Indigofera tinctoria , one of

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4788-414: The Ethiopian rainy season when rainfall is especially high in the Ethiopian Highlands ; the rest of the year, the great rivers draining Ethiopia into the Nile have a weaker flow. In harsh and arid seasons and droughts, the Blue Nile dries out completely. The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. During

4902-444: The Ethiopian Highlands, satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. A canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents the Eonile that flowed during 23–5.3 million years before present. The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean; several natural gas fields have been discovered within these sediments. During the late- Miocene Messinian salinity crisis , when

5016-436: The Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows about 1,400 kilometres to Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile join to form the Nile. Ninety percent of the water and ninety-six percent of the transported sediment carried by the Nile come from the Atbarah and Blue Nile, both of which originate in Ethiopia, with fifty-nine percent of the water coming from the Blue Nile. The erosion and transportation of silt only occurs during

5130-466: The European powers, fearful lest he topple the Ottoman Empire itself, forced him to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans. He kept the Sudan and his title to Egypt was made hereditary. A more lasting result of his military ambition is that it required him to modernize the country. Eager to adopt the military (and therefore industrial) techniques of the great powers, he sent students to the West and invited training missions to Egypt. He built industries,

5244-412: The Kagera has tributaries that are in contention for the farthest source of the White Nile. Two start in Burundi: the Ruvyironza River (also known as the Luvironza) and the Rurubu River . In addition, in 2010, an exploration party in Rwanda went to a place described as the source of the Rukarara tributary, and by hacking a path up steep jungle-choked mountain slopes in the Nyungwe Forest found (in

5358-405: The Levant, and had almost no DNA from sub-Saharan Africa. What's more, the genetics of the mummies remained remarkably consistent even as different powers—including Nubians, Greeks, and Romans—conquered the empire". The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became

5472-414: The Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated to the point of being empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred metres below world ocean level at Aswan and 2,400 m (7,900 ft) below Cairo. This created a very long and deep canyon which was filled with sediment after the Mediterranean was recreated. At some point the sediments raised

5586-464: The Middle East and Africa, and described being told of the source of the Nile in Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Later in the 15th and 16th centuries, travelers to Ethiopia visited Lake Tana and the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Supposedly, Paolo Trevisani ( c.  1452 –1483), a Venetian traveller in Ethiopia, wrote a journal of his travels to the origin of the Nile that has since been lost. Although James Bruce claimed to be

5700-407: The Nile near the southern point of the Great Bend. The Nile has been the lifeline of civilization in Egypt since the Stone Age , with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt developing along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. However, the Nile used to run much more westerly through what is now Wadi Hamim and Wadi al Maqar in Libya and flow into the Gulf of Sidra . As

5814-411: The Nile since ancient times. A tune, Hymn to the Nile , was created and sung by the ancient Egyptian peoples about the flooding of the Nile River and all of the miracles it brought to Ancient Egyptian civilization. Water buffalo were introduced from Asia, and the Assyrians introduced camels in the 7th century BCE. These animals were raised for meat and were domesticated and used for ploughing—or in

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5928-403: The Nile valley north of the Aswan Dam . Nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt developed and are found along river banks. The Nile is, with the Rhône and Po , one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest water discharge . The standard English names "White Nile" and "Blue Nile" refer to the river's source, derived from Arabic names formerly applied to only

6042-410: The Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile. The flow rate of the Bahr al Jabal at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages 1,048 m /s (37,000 cu ft/s). After Mongalla, the Bahr Al Jabal enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region. More than half of the Nile's water is lost in this swamp to evaporation and transpiration . The average flow rate of

6156-417: The Nile. When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's color. The Yellow Nile is a former tributary that connected the Ouaddaï highlands of eastern Chad to the Nile River Valley c.  8000 to c.  1000 BCE . Its remains are known as the Wadi Howar . The wadi passes through Gharb Darfur near the northern border with Chad and meets up with

6270-504: The Roman Empire (by some accounts, the most important for a time). Shipping from Egypt regularly reached India and Ethiopia among other international destinations. It was also a leading (perhaps the leading) scientific and technological center of the Empire. Scholars such as Ptolemy , Hypatia , and Heron broke new ground in astronomy, mathematics, and other disciplines. Culturally, the city of Alexandria at times rivaled Rome in its importance. Christianity reached Egypt relatively early in

6384-414: The Sudanese capital of Khartoum . The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Nubian Desert to Cairo and its large delta , and the river flows into the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria . Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river and its annual flooding since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of

6498-425: The Sudanese stretches that meet at Khartoum . In the ancient Egyptian language , the Nile is called Ḥꜥpy (Hapy) or Jtrw (Iteru), meaning "river". In Coptic , the word ⲫⲓⲁⲣⲟ , pronounced piaro ( Sahidic ) or phiaro ( Bohairic ), means "the river" (lit. p(h).iar-o "the.canal-great"), and comes from the same ancient name. In Nobiin , the river is called Áman Dawū , meaning "the great water". In Luganda ,

6612-431: The Sudd wetlands of South Sudan, the upper reaches of the White Nile remained largely unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Vitruvius thought that source of the Nile was in Mauritania, on the "other" (south) side of the Atlas Mountains . Various expeditions failed to determine the river's source. Agatharchides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus , a military expedition had penetrated far enough along

6726-428: The Suez Canal on 26 July 1956, prompting the 1956 Suez Crisis . In 1958, Egypt and Syria formed a sovereign union known as the United Arab Republic . The union was short-lived, ending in 1961 when Syria seceded, thus ending the union. During most of its existence, the United Arab Republic was also in a loose confederation with North Yemen (the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen ) known as the United Arab States . In

6840-410: The Sultan but this was in fact a polite fiction: Ottoman power in Egypt was finished and Muhammad Ali, an ambitious and able leader, established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952. After 1882 the dynasty became a British puppet. Muhammad Ali's primary focus was military: he annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia ; but in 1841

6954-408: The White Nile at the tails of the swamps is about 510 m /s (18,000 cu ft/s). From here it meets with the Sobat River at Malakal . On an annual basis, the White Nile upstream of Malakal contributes about 15% of the total outflow of the Nile. The average flow of the White Nile at Lake Kawaki Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is 924 m /s (32,600 cu ft/s); the peak flow

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7068-400: The White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile. Below Renk , the White Nile enters Sudan, it flows north to Khartoum and meets the Blue Nile. The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over six groups of cataracts , from the sixth at Sabaloka just north of Khartoum northward to Abu Hamad . The tectonic uplift of the Nubian Swell diverts

7182-444: The afterlife. The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god Ra , the Sun, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each day as he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they had to be buried on the side that symbolized death. As the Nile was such an important factor in Egyptian life,

7296-482: The ancient calendar was even based on the three cycles of the Nile. These seasons, each consisting of four months of thirty days each, were called Akhet , Peret , and Shemu . Akhet, which means inundation, was the time of the year when the Nile flooded, leaving several layers of fertile soil behind, aiding in agricultural growth. Peret was the growing season, and Shemu, the last season, was the harvest season when there were no rains. Owing to their failure to penetrate

7410-451: The burial of her lover Mark Antony , who had died in her arms (from a self-inflicted stab wound) after Augustus had captured Alexandria and her mercenary forces had fled. The Ptolemies faced rebellions of native Egyptians, often caused by an unwanted regime, and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Nevertheless, Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt well after

7524-411: The camels' case, carriage. Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a convenient and efficient means of transportation for people and goods. The Nile was also an important part of ancient Egyptian spiritual life. Hapi was the god of the annual floods, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding. The Nile was considered to be a causeway from life to death and

7638-432: The capital city and a center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The last ruler from the Ptolemaic dynasty was Cleopatra , who committed suicide following

7752-406: The central part of the basin may still be subsiding. The White Nile Rift system, although shallower than the Bahr el Arab rift , is about 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5–9 kilometers (3.1–5.6 mi). These basins were not interconnected until their subsidence ceased, and the rate of sediment deposition

7866-433: The complete withdrawal of British forces from the Suez Canal in 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser (president from 1956 to 1970) introduced many reforms and created the short-lived United Arab Republic (with Syria ). His terms also saw the Six-Day War and the creation of the international Non-Aligned Movement . His successor, Anwar Sadat (president from 1970 to 1981) changed Egypt's trajectory, departing from many of

7980-652: The country after a brief Persian invasion early in the 7th century, until 639–642, when Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Arab Islamic Empire . The final loss of Egypt was of incalculable significance to the Byzantine Empire, which had relied on Egypt for many agricultural and manufactured goods. When they defeated the Byzantine armies in Egypt, the Arabs brought Sunni Islam to the country. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with their Christian traditions as well as other indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. These earlier rites had survived

8094-429: The country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III . A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic-speaking Hyksos . The Hyksos migrants took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris . They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I , who founded

8208-521: The course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian Highlands, but no European of antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana. The Tabula Rogeriana depicted the source as three lakes in 1154. Europeans began to learn about the origins of the Nile in the 14th century when the Pope sent monks as emissaries to Mongolia who passed India,

8322-492: The development of Egyptian civilization. Because the river overflowed its banks annually and deposited new layers of silt, the surrounding land was very fertile. The Ancient Egyptians cultivated and traded wheat, flax , papyrus and other crops around the Nile. Wheat was a crucial crop in the famine-plagued Middle East. This trading system secured Egypt's diplomatic relationships with other countries and contributed to economic stability. Far-reaching trade has been carried on along

8436-459: The discovery of the Rosetta Stone , creating the field of Egyptology . Despite early victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, Napoleon and his Armée d'Orient were eventually defeated and forced to withdraw, especially after suffering the defeat of the supporting French fleet at the Battle of the Nile . The expulsion of the French in 1801 by Ottoman , Mamluk , and British forces

8550-402: The dry season the natural discharge of the Blue Nile can be as low as 113 m /s (4,000 cu ft/s), although upstream dams regulate the flow of the river. During the wet season, the peak flow of the Blue Nile often exceeds 5,663 m /s (200,000 cu ft/s) in late August (a difference of a factor of 50). Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by

8664-410: The etymology is disputed. Homer called the river Αἴγυπτος , Aiguptos , but in subsequent periods, Greek authors referred to its lower course as Neilos ; this term became generalized for the entire river system. Thus, the name may derive from Ancient Egyptian expression n ꜣ r ꜣ w-ḥ ꜣ w(t) (lit. 'the mouths of the front parts'), which referred specifically to the branches of the Nile transversing

8778-523: The evangelist period of the first century (traditionally credited to Mark the Evangelist ). Alexandria, Egypt and Antioch, Syria quickly became the leading centers of Christianity. Diocletian 's reign marked the transition from the classical Roman to the Late antique/Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After

8892-591: The figurehead of a de facto British protectorate. In 1914, the Protectorate was made official, and the Ottoman Empire no longer had a role. The title for the head of state, which in 1867 had changed from pasha to khedive , was changed again to sultan . Abbas II was deposed as khedive and replaced by his uncle, Hussein Kamel , as sultan. In 1906, the Dinshaway Incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join

9006-500: The first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez . Páez's account of the source of the Nile is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. It was published in full only in the early 20th century, although it was featured in works of Páez's contemporaries, including Baltazar Téllez, Athanasius Kircher and Johann Michael Vansleb . Europeans had been resident in Ethiopia since

9120-425: The first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmad Urabi a prominent figure. In 1882 he became head of a nationalist-dominated ministry committed to democratic reforms including parliamentary control of the budget. Fearing a reduction of their control, Britain and France intervened militarily, bombarding Alexandria and crushing the Egyptian army at the battle of Tel el-Kebir . They reinstalled Ismail's son Tewfik as

9234-407: The former president Hosni Mubarak . The Egyptian revolution of 2011 deposed Mubarak and resulted in the first democratically elected president in Egyptian history, Mohamed Morsi . Unrest after the 2011 revolution and related disputes led to the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état , Morsi's imprisonment and the election of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as president in 2014. There is evidence of petroglyphs along

9348-459: The great lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria . Burton, recovering from illness and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika , was outraged that Speke claimed to have proven his discovery to be the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A quarrel ensued which sparked intense debate within

9462-564: The lake's northern shore. Infitah Presidency Family Portrayals Legacy [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Under President Nasser, proponents of statism and a command economy with limited private investment, dominated the political scene. However, by the 1970s, critics believed Egypt's economy, with its large public sector , had evolved into a " Soviet -style system" of "inefficiency, suffocating bureaucracy , and waste." Sadat also wanted to turn Egypt away from its focus on war with Israel and devotion of resources to

9576-592: The late 15th century, and one of them may have visited the headwaters even earlier without leaving a written trace. The Portuguese João Bermudes published the first description of the Tis Issat Falls in his 1565 memoirs, compared them to the Nile Falls alluded to in Cicero 's De Republica . Jerónimo Lobo describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. Telles also uses his account. The White Nile

9690-434: The livelihoods of many of the people on whom the group depended for support. Victims of the campaign against the Egyptian state from 1992 to 1997 exceeded 1,200 and included the head of the counter-terrorism police (Major General Raouf Khayrat), a speaker of parliament ( Rifaat el-Mahgoub ), dozens of European tourists and Egyptian bystanders, and over 100 Egyptian police. At times, travel by foreigners in parts of Upper Egypt

9804-562: The main Nile during the 70,000–80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile to the main system some 12,500 years ago during the African humid period . The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that "Egypt was the gift of the Nile". An unending source of sustenance, it played a crucial role in

9918-441: The mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s. According to author Tarek Osman "Infitah's main fault was that it was over ambitious. It failed to recognize the complexities of Egypt's socio-economic conditions ... It ignored the limitations of the country's administrative system and the power of the military establishment ... the mismatch between the skills of the Egyptian middle class and the various economic opportunities springing up as

10032-673: The nationalist movement. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement to a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution . The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922. The new government drafted and implemented

10146-633: The nominal independence of Egypt, resulting in Egypt's becoming one of the provinces of the Roman Empire. Roman rule in Egypt (including Byzantine ) lasted from 30 BC to 641 AD, with a brief interlude of control by the Sasanian Empire between 619 and 629, known as Sasanian Egypt . After the Muslim conquest of Egypt , parts of Egypt became provinces of successive Caliphates and other Muslim dynasties: Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), Abbasid Caliphate (750–935), Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), Ayyubid Sultanate (1171–1260), and

10260-508: The original sources of indigo dye . Another may be Nymphaea caerulea , known as "The Sacred Blue Lily of the Nile", which was found scattered over Tutankhamun 's corpse when it was excavated in 1922. Another possible etymology derives from the Semitic term Nahal , meaning "river". Old Libyan has the term lilu , meaning water (in modern Berber ilel ⵉⵍⴻⵍ means sea ). With a total length of about 6,650 km (4,130 mi) between

10374-796: The period of Coptic Christianity. Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids . With the end of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty , the Mamluks , a Turco - Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies. The Greek and Coptic languages and cultures went into

10488-577: The political, and economic tenets of Nasserism, re-instituting a multi-party system and launching the Infitah economic policy. He led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to regain Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967. This later led to the Egypt–Israel peace treaty . Recent Egyptian history has been dominated by events following nearly thirty years of rule by

10602-417: The predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. A unified kingdom was formed in 3150 BC by King Menes , leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion , arts , language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set

10716-615: The present course of the Nile in Egypt and Sudan. Rushdi Said postulates that Egypt supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile, the Atbara and the Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times. Salama suggests that during

10830-456: The region of Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea , the Nile is among the longest rivers on Earth. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers (1,256,591 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Africa. Compared to other major rivers, though, the Nile carries little water (5% of that of the Congo River , for example). The Nile basin is complex, and because of this,

10944-661: The river is called Kiira or Kiyira . In Runyoro , it is called Kihiira . In Egyptian Arabic , the Nile is called en-Nīl , while in Standard Arabic it is called an-Nīl . In Biblical Hebrew , it is הַיְאוֹר ‎, Ha-Ye'or or הַשִׁיחוֹר ‎, Ha-Shiḥor . The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος . Beyond that, however,

11058-639: The river south-west for over 300 km, following the structure of the Central African Shear Zone embracing the Bayuda Desert . At Al Dabbah it resumes its northward course towards the first cataract at Aswan forming the S-shaped Great Bend of the Nile mentioned by Eratosthenes . In the north of Sudan, the river enters Lake Nasser (known in Sudan as Lake Nubia), the larger part of which

11172-569: The riverbed sufficiently for the river to overflow westward into a depression to create Lake Moeris . Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. The Nile was much longer at that time, with its furthest headwaters in northern Zambia. The currently existing Nile first flowed during the former parts of the Würm glaciation period. Affad 23

11286-559: The same time securing his position in power. The implementation of Infitah is generally considered to have been flawed in its over-ambitiousness and its appearance of having abandoned "solidarity with the poor." The government rewarded its cronies and allies (many of whom became quite rich), and built a power base loyal to the regime with concessions on land, goods and commodities; mandates and contracts to agencies and dealerships, but did little to create free markets and an open economy. The millions of previously poor Egyptians who had joined

11400-474: The same time the public sector continued to dominate the economy. The proportion of the population working for the state grew from 3.8% at the height of the Nasserite era, to 10% (about 35% of the country's entire labor force) after the full thrust of Infitah in the early 1980s. Despite promotion of foreign private investment, the "state's contribution to the formation of investment capital" (72%), barely changed from

11514-407: The scientific community and interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. British explorer and missionary David Livingstone pushed too far west and entered the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on

11628-527: The sea level rose at the end of the most recent ice age , the stream which is now the northern Nile captured the ancestral Nile near Asyut . This change in climate also led to the current extents of the Sahara desert, around 3400 BCE. The Giza pyramid complex originally overlooked a branch of the Nile that no longer exists. This branch was highest during the African Humid Period . The existing Nile has five earlier phases: Flowing north from

11742-644: The stage for the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700–2200 BC), which constructed many pyramids , most notably the pyramid of Djoser , constructed during the Third Dynasty and the Giza Pyramids , constructed in the Fourth Dynasty . The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for

11856-520: The war ended with a military stalemate, it presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel. Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League , but it

11970-544: The western shores of the lake and flows at first to the west until just south of Masindi Port , where the river turns north, then makes a great half circle to the east and north to Karuma Falls . For the remaining part, it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta. Lake Albert is on the border of the Democratic Republic of

12084-590: Was an entirely Persian -ruled period, with the Achaemenid kings being granted the title of pharaoh . Amyrtaeus ' successful rebellion ended the first Achaemenid rule and inaugurated Egypt's last significant phase of independence under native rulers. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians again in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II ,

12198-510: Was cautious. Said and Ismail were ambitious developers, but they spent beyond their means. The Suez Canal , built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. The cost of this and other projects had two effects: it led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular discontent because of the onerous taxation it required. In 1875, Ismail sold Egypt's 44% share in the canal to the British Government. Ismail also tried to conquer

12312-552: Was defeated in battle. The Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt , also known as the Second Egyptian Satrapy , was effectively a short-living province of the Achaemenid Empire between 343 BC to 332 BC. After an interval of independence, during which three indigenous dynasties reigned (the 28th , 29th and 30th dynasty ), Artaxerxes III (358–338 BC) reconquered the Nile valley for a brief second period (343–332 BC), which

12426-562: Was enough to fill and connect them. The Egyptian Nile connected to the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial headwaters during the current stages of tectonic activity in the Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift systems. The connection of the different Niles occurred during cyclic wet periods. The Atbarah overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods that occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years ago. The Blue Nile connected to

12540-582: Was even less understood. The ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile. For example, Pliny the Elder writes that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania ", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyli , then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for

12654-436: Was executed in 1967, as the inspiration for the new wave of attacks. The 1990s saw an Islamist group , al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya , engage in an extended campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the largest sector of Egypt's economy—tourism—and in turn to the government, but it also devastated

12768-609: Was followed by four years of anarchy in which Ottomans, Mamluks, and Albanians — who were nominally in the service of the Ottomans – wrestled for power. Out of this chaos, the commander of the Albanian regiment, Muhammad Ali ( Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha ) emerged as a dominant figure and in 1805 was acknowledged by the Sultan in Istanbul as his viceroy in Egypt; the title implied subordination to

12882-500: Was severely restricted and dangerous. On 17 November 1997, 62 people, mostly tourists, were killed near Luxor . The assailants trapped the people in the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut . During this period, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was given support by the governments of Iran and Sudan, as well as al-Qaeda . The Egyptian government received support during that time from the United States. Nile River The Nile (also known as

12996-470: Was supported by most Egyptians. On 6 October 1981, Sadat and six diplomats were assassinated while observing a military parade commemorating the eighth anniversary of the October 1973 War. He was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak . In 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, terrorist attacks in Egypt became numerous and severe, and began to target Copts and foreign tourists as well as government officials. Some scholars and authors have credited Islamist writer Sayyid Qutb , who

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