These cultural advances corresponded to the political unification of the cities of Upper Nile or Upper Egypt, whereas this was the case in the societies of the Nile Delta or Lower Egypt. [10] This led to wars between the two new kingdoms. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the delta and became the sole ruler of the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt,[22] a sovereignty that endured throughout dynastic Egypt.[10] Kemet or “black earth” refers to the rich and fertile land of the Nile Valley, while Deshret or “red earth” refers to the hot, dry desert. The contrast between red earth and black earth was not only visible or geographical, it influenced the daily life of the Egyptians. The dry climate of the desert, for example, made it an ideal place for cemeteries. There, the annual flooding of the Nile did not disturb people`s graves, and the dry climate helped preserve the graves and their contents. Good conservation and the fact that most people don`t live in the desert are the main reasons why much of what archaeologists and anthropologists study comes from a funerary context. Upper Egypt, Arabic Qiblī Miṣr, also called Al-Ṣaʿīd (“The Highlands”), a geographical and cultural division of Egypt, generally consisting of the Nile Valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel N. It therefore consists of the entire Nile Valley from Cairo in the south to Lake Nasser (formed by the Aswan High Dam).

This division also includes what some scholars call Middle Egypt (from Lisht to Panopolis). Ancient Egyptian Sema-Tawy – represents the eternal union of Upper and Lower Egypt (www.shutterstock.com 1778750570). The close connection between the Egyptians on the Nile led them to identify a number of Egyptian gods with aspects of the river, its annual tide, and the fertility and abundance associated with it. happy, for example, is the embodiment of the life force provided by the Nile; it also symbolizes the annual flooding of the Nile. Its round belly and skin folds represent fullness. Osiris, who is most often recognized in his role related to the afterlife, is fundamentally a god of regeneration and rebirth. Artists have often depicted it with black skin, associating it with the fertility of the Nile and its invigorating silt. The wider natural world was another source of inspiration for Egyptian religion.

Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the title is still used by Muhammad Ali, Prince of the Said. In ancient times, the Egyptians called the desert the “red earth” and distinguished it from the floodplain around the Nile, called “black earth”. These colors reflect the fact that the desert sand has a reddish hue and the earth around the Nile turned black when the annual flood receded. Several dynasties of southern or Upper Egyptian origin, including the 11th, 12th, 17th, 18th and 25th dynasties, united and revived Pharaonic Egypt after periods of fragmentation. [23] The following list may not be exhaustive (there are many others of uncertain existence): The landscapes of Upper and Lower Egypt also differ. The Egyptian word Tawy means “two lands” – this refers to the two main regions of ancient Egypt, Upper and Lower Egypt. Lower Egypt is located to the north and contains the Nile delta, while Upper Egypt contains areas to the south. Both designations may seem counterintuitive for their physical location, but they reflect the flow of the Nile from south to north. In twentieth-century Egypt, the title Prince of Said (meaning Prince of Upper Egypt) was used by the Egyptian heir to the throne. [Note 1] The Egyptians considered the king the unifier of the “Two Lands”. One of the king`s main tasks was to maintain the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt; the Egyptians expressed this visually with what we call the Sema Tawy pattern.

Here you will see two Nile gods symbolically uniting the lands of Upper and Lower Egypt – each in the form of its characteristic plant, the papyrus for Lower Egypt and the lotus for Upper Egypt. Around 5000 BC. When the climate became drier, nomadic groups retreated to the Nile Valley and founded the first urban settlements. These communities were concentrated in the north and south. As a result, Egypt became known as the “Double Country” or “Two Lands” of Upper and Lower Egypt. To the south, the Nile has a series of six main cataracts that begin at the site of Aswan. A cataract is a shallow section of turbulent water that forms where flowing water meets resistant rock layers. In the case of the cataracts of the Nile, the large granite protuberances make the river unpredictable and much more difficult to cross by boat. The cataract system created a natural border in Aswan that separated Egypt from its southern neighbor, Nubia. The desert and the Nile were formed millions of years ago when the ancient sea that covered most of Europe and North Africa (45 million years ago) moved and formed the Mediterranean basin.

This happened when tectonic plates shifted, creating the Himalayas and the Alps. For thousands of years, the Nile has developed in its current form, surrounded by eastern and western deserts. According to bioarchaeologist Nancy Lovell, the morphology of ancient Egyptian skeletons provides strong evidence that “the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia in general had the greatest biological affinity with the peoples of the Sahara and more southern regions,” but exhibited local differences in an African context. [20] The Upper Nile is divided into three tributaries: the White Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara. The White Nile flows from Lake Victoria, Lake Edward and Lake George, and the Blue Nile rises in the Ethiopian mountains. The Atbara River flows from the Ethiopian highlands and meets the White Nile and Blue Nile north of Khartoum. Before the river empties into the Mediterranean Sea, it splits into four smaller tributaries in the delta region. In Upper Egypt, the predynastic Badari culture was followed by the Naqada (Amratian) culture,[11] which was closely related to the Nubian and other tropical African populations,[12][13][14][15][16][17] and proto-dynastic kings emerged from the Naqada region. [18] Excavations at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) have found archaeological evidence of ritual masks similar to those used further south in Egypt and obsidian associated with Ethiopian quarry sites.

[19] Upper Egypt lies between the cataracts of the Nile beyond present-day Aswan, downstream (northward) to the region of El-Ayait,[6] which places present-day Cairo in Lower Egypt. The northern (downstream) part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is also known as Middle Egypt. Around 3600 BC. Egyptian Neolithic societies along the Nile based their culture on the cultivation of cereals and the domestication of animals. [9] Soon after, Egypt began to grow and become more complex. [10] A distinctive new pottery appeared, related to Levantine pottery, and copper utensils and ornaments became common. [10] Mesopotamian building techniques became popular, with sun-dried mud bricks in built-in arches and decorative walls. [10] The most important city in prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen.

[7] The protective deity was the goddess Nekhbet, depicted as a vulture. [8] The two countries were united in 3100 BC.

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