The inundation, HAPI-U R, " great Nile," or "high Nile," fertilizes and sustains the country, and makes the river its chief blessing, a very low inundation or failure of rising being the cause of famine. The Nile was on this account ancientlj' worshipped, and the plague in which its waters were turned into blood, while injurious to the river itself and its fish (F.xod. vii, 21; Psa. cv, 29), was a reproof to the superstition of the Egj-ptians. The rise begins in Egypt about the summer solstice, and the inundation commences about two months later. The greatest height is at- tained about or somewhat after the autumnal equinox. The inundation lasts about three months. During this time, and especially when near the highest, the river rapidly pours along its red turbid waters, and spreads through openings in its banks over the whole valley and plain. The prophet Amos, speaking of the ruin of Israel, metaphorically says that "the land . . . shall be drowned, as [by] the flood [river] of Egypt" (viii, 8; ix, 5). Owing to the yearl)' deposit of allu- vial matter, both the 1)ed of the Nile and the land of Egvpt are gradnally raised. The river proceeds in its current uniformly and quietly at the rate of two and a half or three miles an hour, always deep enough for
EGYPT
80
EGYPT
navigation. Its water is usuallj' blue, but it becomes of a deep brick-red (lurin<^ the period of its overflow. It is salubrious for drinking, meriting the encomiums which it has so abundantly received. On the river the land is wholly dependent. If tlie Nile does not rise a sufficient height, sterility and dearth, if not fam- ine, ensue. An elevation of sixteen fathoms is essen- tial to secure the prosperity of the country. Such, however, is the regularity of nature, and such the faithfulness of God, that for thousands of years, with but few and partial exceptions, these inundations have in essential particulars been the same. The waters of the stream are conveyed over the surface of the country by canals when natural channels fail. Dur- ing the overflow the land is literally inundated, and has the appearance of a sea dotted with islands. Wher- ever the waters reach abundance springs forth. The cultivator has scarcely more to do than to scatter the seed. No wonder that a river whose waters are so grateful, salubrious, and beneficial should in days of ignorance have been regarded as an oliject of worship, and that it is still revered and beloved. See Nile.
VI. Geolo(j]j. — The fertile plain of the Delta and the vallej' of Upper Egypt are bounded by rocky deserts covered or strewn with sand. On either side of the plain they are low, but thej' overlook the rallej', above which they rise so steeplj^ as from the river to present the aspect of cliffs. The formation is limestone as far as a little above Thebes, where sandstone begins. The First Cataract, the southern limit of Egypt, is caused by granite and other primitive rocks, which rise through the sandstone and obstruct the river's bed. In Upper Egypt the mountains near the Nile rarely exceed 300 feet in height, but far in the eastern des- ert the}' often attain a much greater elevation. The highest is .Jobel Gharib, which rises about GOOO feet above tin sea. Limestone, sandstone, and granite were obtained from (juarries near the river ; basalt, breccia, and porphyry from others in the eastern des- ert between the Thebais and the Red Sea. A geologi- cal change has, it is thought, in the course of centuries raised the country near the head of the Gulf of Suez, and depressed that on the northern side of the isthmus. The Delta is of a triangular form, its eastern and west- ern limits being nearly' marked by the courses of the ancient Pelusiac and Canopic branches of the Nile: Upper Egypt is a narrow winding vallej', varj^ng in breadth, but seldom more than twelve miles across, and generall}' broadest on the western side. Ancient- ly there was a fertile valley on the course of the Canal of the Red Sea, the Land of Goshen (q. v.), now called AVady Tumeilat : this is covered with the sands of the desert. To the south, on the opposite side, is the oasis now called the Feyum, the old Ai'sinoite Nome, con- nected witli the valley by a neck of cultivated land.
YII. Agriculture, etc. — The. ancient prosperity of Egyjit is attested by the Bible, as well as by the nu- merous monuments of the country. As earlj' as the age of the (ireat Pyramid it must liave been densely populated and well able to support its inhabitants, for it cannot be supposed that there was then much exter- nal trafiic. In such a climate the wants of man are few, and nature is lil)eral in necessary food. Even the Israelites in their hard bondage did "eat freely" the lish, and the vegetaldes, and fruits of the country, and ever afterwards they longed to return to the idle jilenty of a land where even now starvation is un- known. Tlie contrast of the present state of Egypt with its former prosperity is more to be ascribed to polit- ical than to physical causes. It is true that the branch- es of the Nile have fiuled, the canals and the artiticial lakes and ponds for lish are dried u]) ; that the reeds and other water-plants whicli were of value in com- merce, and a shelter for wild-fowl, have in most.parts perished; that the Land of (ioshen, once, at least for pasture, "the best of the land"'(Gen. xlvii,'(), 11), is now sand-strewn and unwatered, so as scarcely to be