6th - SS Chapter 4 notes Flashcards
What provided water for civilizations in northeastern Africa for thousands of years?
The Nile River
Name some of the Egyptian advances that paved the way for later civilizations
- Developed one of the first systems of writing
- Preserved some of the world’s oldest records and works of literature
- Built impressive pyramids
- Produced beautiful works of art
- Were accomplished mathematicians and scientists.
What is the world’s longest river, more than 4,000 miles long and is surrounded by deserts?
The Nile River
The Nile River slows down and fans out into many streams and marshy areas over which it drops silt (fine soil) which forms a triangular shaped area at the mouth of the river which is known as?
Nike Delta
What is the region that the Nike Delta forms known as?
Lower Egypt
The Egyptian civilization began along what?
The Nile River
What area did the Nile River irrigate?
About 5 miles out on both sides of the River
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What are the sources of the Nike River?
The White Nile and the Blue Nile
The Nile flooded yearly due to heavy rainfall in East Africa. When the flood waters drained away, the people living here would plant seeds in this fertile soil called?
“The Black Land”
Without the Nile River, what would happen?
Crops could not grow and there would not be enough water for people to survive
What made the Nile River impossible to sail directly from the Nile Delta to East Africa?
Cataracts - groups of rocky rapids.
What was located on either side of the Black Lands?
Vast deserts which was called the “Red Land” which was a deadly place of hot burning sands.
What did Egyptian farmers learn to do in order to irrigate their crops?
They learned to build earthen walls around fields to trap the Nile’s flood waters. This water soaked into the soil and allowed grains such as wheat to grow.
What did this simple form of irrigation lead to?
The ability to produce a surplus of food.
How did the Egyptian farmers learn to predict the Nile’s flooding?
They studied the stars, particularly Sirius which appeared around the time of the flooding
