Agriculture, a critical part of any civilization, ancient or modern. Farming and agriculture are what have founded many modern cities, and civilizations and without that, the human race wouldn’t have been able to advance at such a rate that made us what we are today. The Nile, flowing more than 4,100 miles through Africa is the longest river in the whole world, and it is what made life in ancient Egypt flourish and grow to be such a strong civilization. The Nile had a very large impact on the people of Egypt and their farms and irrigation systems.
Though there were many ideas as to how to best grow crops, water them and provide what they need to live in the given circumstances, some ideas came to work much better than others. When the Nile River would overflow, it would leave behind a mud called silt that would form a fertile area for growing crops. When the Nile's water would recede, the farmers would immediately plow the fields and plant crops such as wheat, barley, fruits and other vegetables. In this thick, clay like mud, the work that was put into planting the crops soon became too much for many farmers, thereafter, a ox or animal drawn plow was invented. Not only did it make things a lot easier for the Egyptian farmers, but it took much less time, therefore, giving the farmers and other laborers more time to be able to do more things within the city. Often, when the farmers went out to cut down and collect the crops, they would use a device called a sickle to cut and harvest the crop. As the farming technology grew greater, the more time the farmers had to explore new things, and help build the city.
Irrigation was a necessity not only for the people in the cities to get the water they need, but for the waters to be withheld when there was a flood Irrigation systems were crucial to the farms of ancient Egypt. Basin Irrigation is one of the best ways that was simple yet benefited the farmers in more than one way. Basin Irrigation was a way of letting the Egyptians control the rise and fall of the Nile to help them. It was a grid of walls that made it so when the Nile flooded, then water would be kept in the basins and then later, when they were in need of the water, it would be better stored. If you walked into a typical ancient Egyptian farm, it would be fairly likely to see a structure called a shaduf. This is a giant wooden pole with a long rope and large bucket attached to one end that could be lowered enough to dip into the water and pivot and lift up and down to fill the bucket and distribute it to the needed areas. This was of great help to the farmers.
Farming was the life of every ancient civilization and one of the main reasons that ancient Egypt grew and grew until it was one of the most well known, fascinating civilizations ever. Egypt was lucky enough to be on the Nile river and though this is the reason it grew so large, farming is what the Nile mainly benefited. In the end, to go back and see the heart of ancient Egypt, you need to understand what kept it alive.