Abstract
Throughout history humans have been fascinated with the Nile River, especially the Egyptian part of the Nile. The birth of this great civilization has been traced back to a time between 11,000 and 10,000 years ago. Around five thousand years ago this civilization started depending entirely on the Nile River and its annual inundation. This chapter traces the history of water engineering in ancient Egypt starting with the uses of water from the annual inundation of the Nile River for natural irrigation in the Predynastic period to the development of methodologies to advance the use of the Nile River for irrigation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Butzer KW (1976) Early hydraulic civilization in Egypt: a study in cultural ecology. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Caton-Thompson G, Gardner EW (1934) The desert Fayum, Two volumes. Royal Anthropological Institute, London
Fahlbusch, H (1996) Ancient dams in Egypt. Transactions of the 16th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, vol. 1G, New Delhi
Fahlbusch H (2004a) Men of dikes and canals. In: Hans-Dieter Bienert, Haser J (eds) Men of dikes and canals: The archaeology of water in the Middle East, pp. 1–16 (International Symposium held at Petra, Wadi Musa (H. K. of Jordan), June 15–20, 1999), Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden/Westf
Fahlbusch H (2004b) The Sadd el Kafara – The oldest high dam of the world. In: Hans-Dieter Bienert, Haser J (eds) Men of dikes and canals: The archaeology of water in the Middle East, pp. 365–368 (International Symposium held at Petra, Wadi Musa (H. K. of Jordan), June 15–20, 1999), Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden/Westf
Garbrecht G (1985) Sadd-el-Kafara: The world’s oldest large dam. Water power & dam construction, pp. 71–76, July 1985
Hassan F A (1986)Holocene lakes and prehistoric settlements of the western Faiyum, Egypt. J Archaeological Sci 13:483–501
Hassan FA (1998) Climatic change, Nile floods, and civilization. Nature and resources, 32(2):34–40
Herodotus (440 B.C.) The history of Herodotus, English version. Translated by G Rawlinson, http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html
Hillel D (1994) Rivers of Eden: The struggle for water and the quest for peace in the Middle East. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Mehringer PJ Jr, Peterson KL, Hassan FA (1979) A pollen record from Birket Qarun and the recent history of the Faiyum Egypt. Quaternary Res 11:238–256
Murray GW (1955)Water from the desert: Some ancient Egyptian achievements. Geographical J 121:171–187
Said R (1993) The river Nile: Geology, hydrology and utilization. Pergamon Press, New York
Schnitter NJ (1994) A history of dams, the useful pyramids, A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Smith NA (1971) History of dams. Peter Davies, London
Strouhal E (1992) Life in ancient Egypt. Cambridge University Press
Willcocks W, Craig JI (1913) Egyptian irrigation. E. & F.N. Spon Ltd, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mays, L.W. (2010). Water Technology in Ancient Egypt. In: Mays, L. (eds) Ancient Water Technologies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8632-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8632-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8631-0
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8632-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)