Luxor: during the flood 1864
This 1864 photograph documents the Nile and the river life that sustained every civilisation that has ever flourished in Upper Egypt — a visual record of the river in 1864 that is all the more precious given how dramatically the Nile’s character has been altered by the Aswan dams.
The annual Nile flood — the inundation — was the single most important event in the Egyptian calendar, the source of the rich black silt that made the Nile valley the most fertile agricultural land in the ancient world. Egyptians divided their year into three seasons: Akhet (the flood), Peret (the growing season), and Shemu (the harvest). The construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1970 ended this 7,000-year cycle forever, transforming the relationship between Egypt and its river.
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