THE NILE RIVER
The Nile is a river in Africa. It is the longest river on Earth (about 6,650 km or
4,132 miles), its source lies in the heart of Africa, near Lake Victoria and flows
into the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria. It gets its name from the Greek
word Nelios.
The Nile river made it possible for one of the oldest and most fascinating
civilizations in History to exist: Ancient Egypt.
Enjoy a trip through
Ancient Egypt
Sources of the Nile
Lake Victoria
The White Nile, or
simply the Nile, has
three different sources,
situated to the north of
lake Tanganyika,
which join together
quickly before merging
into Lake Victoria.
After flowing from
Lake Victoria, now with
the name of Victoria
Nile, it flows into Lake
Albert through rapids
and waterfalls.
To start the journey, click on the wedjet eye
Ramesses II
The temple of Abu Simbel was
built in the 13th century B.C. by
the pharaoh Ramesses II. In the
façade there appear four statues
of the pharaoh, sitting and
wearing the crowns of High and
Low Egypt. Ramesses is
accompanied by some women,
children and siblings who appear
at a smaller size.
The temple is positioned in such
a way that two times a year the
sun entered and lit the statues White crown of High Egypt
of the gods that were inside. and Red crown of Low Egypt
The Aswan High Dam is
3,830m in length, 980m
wide at the base, 40m wide
at the crest and 111m tall. It
contains 43 million m³ of
material. At maximum,
11,000 m³ of water can pass
through the dam every
second.
The reservoir, named Lake
Nasser, is 550 km long and
35 km at its widest with a
surface area of 5,250 km²
and holds 111 km³.
NILOMETER ON KOM OMBO
Nilometer is the name
given to one of several
devices that are
different in design but
that all serve the same
function: measuring
water levels in the
River Nile and thus
allowing the keeping of
comparative historic
records.
TEMPLE OF HORUS AT EDFU
Of all the temple
remains in Egypt, the
Temple of Horus at Edfu
is the most completely
preserved.
It was built between 237
BC to 57 BC, during the
reign of Cleopatra.
TEMPLE OF KHNUM AT ESNA
In Egyptian
mythology,
Khnum was
one of the
earliest
Egyptian deities,
originally the
god of the
source of the
Nile River.
The Temple of Karnak
It is located close to the Nile
near Tebas (Luxor).
In Karnak its enormous
hypostyle hall stands out.
It measures 102 m wide and
53 m in depth. It has 134
columns that measure 23 m
high, which equals a
building with 9 floors. The
upper part of the columns is
so wide that you could fit 50
people inside.
The sculptured
Dendera zodiac
is a widely known
Egyptian bas-relief from
the ceiling of the
pronaos (or portico) of a
chapel dedicated to
Osiris in the Hathor
temple at Dendera,
containing images of
Taurus (the bull) and
the Libra (the scales).
Libra
AMARNA
In Akhenaten’s reign the
traditional Egyptian gods
were banished – only the
sun-god was worshipped.
To break the links with other
gods, Akhenaten founded a
new capital city: Amarna.
Although the Egyptian
empire was very big, the
population was mainly found
on a narrow strip of land
located on the banks of the
Nile River. The Egyptians
called this piece of land the
¨black land¨ because the
waters from the Nile left very
darkly coloured mud in which
they planted.
Further than the ¨black land¨
was the ¨red land¨, in other
words, the desert where
there were almost no animals
or plants.
The Faiyum Oasis is a
depression or basin in the
desert immediately to the
west of the Nile south of
Cairo.
The extent of the basin
area is estimated at
between 490 mi²
(1,270 km²) and 656 mi²
(1700 km²).
The basin floor comprises
fields watered by a
channel of the Nile, the
Bahr Yussef, as it drains
into a desert depression to
the west of the Nile Valley.
The Great Sphinx is at Giza near
Cairo in Egypt. It sits in a
depression to the south of the
pyramid of the Pharaoh Khafre
(Chephren) at the west bank of
the Nile River. The Sphinx is a
stone sculpture of a creature
with a human head and a lion's
body. The greatest monumental
sculpture in the ancient world, its
body is 200 feet (60m) long and
65 feet (20m) tall. Its face is 13
feet (4m) wide.
The Nile Delta is one of
the world's largest river
deltas—from Alexandria
in the west to Port Said in
the east, it covers some
240 km of Mediterranean
coastline—and is a rich
agricultural region. From
north to south the delta is
approximately 160 km in
length. Most of Egypt’s
population lives in the
delta region where you
can find many cities.
Alexandria is the second
largest city of Egypt. It is
on the coast, on the Nilo’s
delta, where this river has
its mouth . Alexandria is
named after its founder.
Alexander the Great
founded Alexandria in 331
BC.
Rafael Jiménez Álvarez
Rafael Martínez Carmona