John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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7.2 The Banks of the Nile Pt. I: 549-575 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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7.2 The Banks of the Nile Pt. I: 549-575 |
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| .549. The greatest oasis of them all -- that nourished by the waters of the Nile -- lies on the eastern edge of the Sahara in Egypt. The tract of land that can be irrigated from this great river is narrow in the south, but broadens to the north close to the Mediterranean Sea. (Satellite image at Wikipedia ) |
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| .550. Where water can be applied to its surface the land is green: everywhere else it is brown and lifeless, for water is the key to life -- in a country where less than 5% of the land can be cropped. (Satellite image of delta at Satview.files.wordpress ) |
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| .551. Beginning in the 19th century, major works were undertaken to control the Nile. Levees were built to constrain floodwaters, and dams and deep canals built, making it possible to irrigate a large part of the valley throughout the year and allow three harvests per annum. Drainage was improved as well as irrigation. (Levee and canal near Giza courtesy www.geol.umd.edu ) |
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| .552. A veritable agricultural revolution followed the introduction of cotton in the 19th century. Within 50 years Egypt became one of the world’s leading producers of high-grade cotton, much of which was exported. Unfortunately, the commercialization of agriculture led to many small farmers being forced off their land to work as agricultural labourers on the large farms of rich landowners. (Egyptian cotton courtesy Baumwolle at eg.all.biz ) |
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| .553. In the 1950s, however, following a change in government, Egypt’s class of rich landowners was eliminated and there was a more equitable redistribution of land among smallholders. (Farm at Kom Ombo) |
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| .554. By that time there was a real need to bring more land into cultivation. Between 1897 and 1960 Egypt’s area of arable land had expanded by 20%; but its population had grown by 370%! The solution, seemingly, was to reclaim new land from the desert by increasing the year-round supply of water. (Crowded street in Alexandria) |
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| .555. The Aswan High Dam, built by the Soviet Union and finished in 1971, created the largest man-made lake in the world. The original Aswan Dam, built by the British between 1898 and 1902 simply was not high enough. (Aswan High Dam at egy-king.blogspot.com.au) |
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| .556. The new dam drowned the farmlands of the Nubians who lived in villages further south, close to the Sudan. They were forced to move north, and many settled in the Aswan region, which was industrialized after the dam was built since there was now ample hydro-electric power. (Nubian resettlement area near Aswan) |
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| .557. The High Dam allowed for a 30% increase in Egypt’s arable area and a doubling of the country’s supply of electricity. It has also led (it is said) to a rise in the water table beneath adjacent desert areas. (Aswan hydro-electric power station with High Dam behind: courtesy Orlova-tpe at Wikipedia) |
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| .558. The High Dam was a massive undertaking, but its influence was not wholly beneficial. It blocked the flow of the silt critical to the fertility of soils downstream -- resulting in a dramatically increased demand for artificial fertilizers, which are not only expensive but have ecologically damaging side effects ... including increased salinity of ground water, and the collapse of the fishing industry at the mouth of the river. (Panorama courtesy geo4u.edublogs.org ) |
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| .559. And there are public health problems also, because there is no season now when the canals dry up, killing the insects that live there. The bilharzia parasitic worm is the most dangerous, living in snails that thrive in warm slowly moving waters. They have been a problem in Egypt for a long time, but now more than ever. They rarely kill: instead they penetrate internal organs and drain the strength from their host. In China they solved a similar problem by draining the canals. (Skin vesicles on forearm indicating penetration by the bilharzia parasite: courtesy United States Department of Health at Wikipedia ) |
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| .560. In addition, of course, no one knows when the lake will actually be filled with silt and cease to regulate the flow of the river: only one thing is certain ... that it is bound to happen one day! (Satellite image of Dam at insightdigital.org ) |
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| .561. Lake Nasser, above the dam, presently rates as one of the largest man-made lakes in the world, and in addition to its guaranteeing a reliable supply of water for agriculture downstream, it also has had a role in tourism following the relocation of Abu Simbel. [See frames 157-164] (Paddle wheeler alongside at Abu Simbel) |
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| .562. More than half of Egypt’s Arabs are still fellaheen, or peasants. The lands they cultivate are some of the most densely populated in the world. Their compact villages of mud huts are built, wherever possible, on rocky outcrops to save the level land for cropping, and they typically have between 1,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. Census data identifies 4,200 villages and a further 24,000 hamlets. (Below Edfu) |
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| .563. In common with peasants elsewhere, the fellaheen are naturally conservative and use much the same tools as were used in ancient Egypt. The hoe used today (fas in Arabic) is identical to those portrayed in ancient wall paintings, and is used for the self-same tasks ... to work the soil, weed between seedlings, and touch up the walls of canals. (Near Edfu) |
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| .564. Other items of equipment still in use include some shadufs [see frame 371] and the Archimedes’ screw or screw-pump, both used to raise water where it lies close to the surface. The screw was turned by hand, and its invention attributed to the Greek scientist Archimedes after his visit to Egypt. (Archimedes screw at Kom Ombo) |
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| .565. Water wheels, in one form or another, are still used in some areas: but like shadufs they have been largely displaced by pumps -- large and small. (Kom Ombo) |
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| .566. Pumps like this can raise water for household use and for livestock, and for hand watering of nearby gardens, but for field crops and palm groves farmers need greater capacity. (Downstream from Kom Ombo) |
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| .567. It also took the fellaheen hundreds (actually thousands!) of years to put wheels on their ploughs, preferring the “swing-plough” found in many old tombs ... in paintings or as artifacts to be used by the pharaoh’s servants in the next life.[See frame 093] (Swing plough from barn on island near Edfu) |
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| .568. Some farmers have acquired mechanical cultivators with petrol engines, but they are the fortunate few. (Near Edfu) |
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| .569. The author also encountered examples of machinery that had been improvised, like this item. It looks like a disc plough or harrow but was used to chop up straw. (Downstream from Kom Ombo) |
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| .570. The conservatism of the fellaheen is reflected also in their customs and religious practices. Hospitality is as sacred a duty among them as it is for Bedouin; likewise their commitment to the reputation of their family and the need to cleanse its honour by killing those who have offended. (Teenager at work near Edfu) |
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| .571. They are almost all Muslims, and pray five times a day, but they maintain superstitious beliefs and practices from the age of pharaohs ... including fear of the “evil eye” and of subterranean beings, both reflected in the wearing of sacred amulets and the offering of sacrifices. (Mosque at Edfu) |
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| .572. At Aswan, where the average annual rainfall is zero, farmers in times past got the water they needed from the river when it flooded each year after tropical storms drenched its headwaters further south. They also received a fresh layer of silt that enriched the soil: and the taxes they paid to the pharaoh depended upon the level of the floodwaters. [See annotation to frames 91 and 92] (Gardener at Aswan) |
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| .573. Now that the river has been dammed again, flooding is rare. Instead the water is lifted from the river by a host of diesel pumps. Some of them are large, and service an entire village. (Downstream from Kom Ombo) |
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| .574. Others are much smaller and water the fields of a single family. They may look improvised but they make it possible to farm throughout the year. (On island near Edfu) |
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| .575. And in both cases water is carried to fields in main channels lined with concrete to minimize loss. (On island near Edfu) |
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