MC_A Concise History of Africa

North Africa

The Nile and its Tributaries The River Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, the former being the longer of the two, while the latter is the source of most of the Nile’s water and fertile soil. The northern section of the Nile flows almost entirely through desert, from Sudan into Egypt, a country whose civilization depended on the river in ancient times. Most of the population of Egypt, and all of its cities, with the exception of those near to the coast, lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of ancient Egypt are to be found along its banks. The Nile ends in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. A unified kingdom was founded in around 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia, the Nile valley kingdoms reaching their apogee from about 2700–1087 BC. These kingdoms produced some of the world’s most celebrated monuments, including the pyramids of the Giza Plateau and its Great Sphinx, and the numerous ancient artifacts of the southern city of LEFT: Map showing the river Nile from its source to the Mediterranean Sea. OPPOSITE ABOVE: The Temple of Philae at Aswan on the banks of the Nile. OPPOSITE BELOW: Lush vegetation on the banks of the Nile.

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