The role of Major Rivers: The Developments of the Early Egyptian and Mesopotamian Civilisations
The lands of Egypt, in northeast Africa, and Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq, were the homes to two of the earliest civilisations in human history, both of which developed around major rivers. Egypt created a prosperous empire along the thin strip of the Nile River which lasted for thousands of years. Mesopotamia was situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and saw a number of different empires emerge and disappear spanning over roughly a 4,000 year period. Both societies relied a great deal on these rivers and over time, they were able to establish effective agricultural systems. Therefore, this essay will examine and compare Egypt 's relationship …show more content…
Although Egypt was naturally irrigated by the annual flooding of the Nile, they were still largely dependent on irrigation systems. Egypt generally relied on basin irrigation on a local scale which drew directly from the Nile River. This system was simple in that a section of land with a small bank built all around to form a basin and then was flooded with an appropriate amount of water. Basin irrigation was more than enough to meet the agricultural needs of early Egypt. In contrast, Mesopotamia needed to develop an effective irrigation system that was able to control and store water in order to irrigate their fields at the appropriate times and to protect their crops from being wiped out. They developed a sophisticated network of canals that connected groups of settlements and provided easy access to water for their agricultural …show more content…
In Egypt, the geographic environment especially the Nile was of religious significance. For example, Egyptians worshiped 'Hapi ' who was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile and was responsible for depositing rich silt onto the river banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. In Egypt, the geographic environment was "experienced as divinely ordered" which meant that every phenomenon was accepted as the way of the Egyptian gods. In Mesopotamia, its religious relationship with the geographic environment was less pronounced than that of the Egyptians. Instead, Mesopotamian divinities appear to be responsible for their political developments rather than their religious relationship with the geographic environment. This could be due to the fact that managing the geographic environment, especially the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, required more toil in order to become more powerful in contrast to Egypt whose river valley was more easy to manage and allowed Egyptians to see a "divine order" of some
The lands of Egypt, in northeast Africa, and Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq, were the homes to two of the earliest civilisations in human history, both of which developed around major rivers. Egypt created a prosperous empire along the thin strip of the Nile River which lasted for thousands of years. Mesopotamia was situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and saw a number of different empires emerge and disappear spanning over roughly a 4,000 year period. Both societies relied a great deal on these rivers and over time, they were able to establish effective agricultural systems. Therefore, this essay will examine and compare Egypt 's relationship …show more content…
Although Egypt was naturally irrigated by the annual flooding of the Nile, they were still largely dependent on irrigation systems. Egypt generally relied on basin irrigation on a local scale which drew directly from the Nile River. This system was simple in that a section of land with a small bank built all around to form a basin and then was flooded with an appropriate amount of water. Basin irrigation was more than enough to meet the agricultural needs of early Egypt. In contrast, Mesopotamia needed to develop an effective irrigation system that was able to control and store water in order to irrigate their fields at the appropriate times and to protect their crops from being wiped out. They developed a sophisticated network of canals that connected groups of settlements and provided easy access to water for their agricultural …show more content…
In Egypt, the geographic environment especially the Nile was of religious significance. For example, Egyptians worshiped 'Hapi ' who was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile and was responsible for depositing rich silt onto the river banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. In Egypt, the geographic environment was "experienced as divinely ordered" which meant that every phenomenon was accepted as the way of the Egyptian gods. In Mesopotamia, its religious relationship with the geographic environment was less pronounced than that of the Egyptians. Instead, Mesopotamian divinities appear to be responsible for their political developments rather than their religious relationship with the geographic environment. This could be due to the fact that managing the geographic environment, especially the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, required more toil in order to become more powerful in contrast to Egypt whose river valley was more easy to manage and allowed Egyptians to see a "divine order" of some