0 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 The ancient Egyptians knew they depended on the river they lived beside. 1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,000 It gave them everything they needed. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Water for their crops, for their animals and themselves. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000 A way to transport people and goods. 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,000 A supply of fish and water birds to catch and eat. 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Without the Nile, they knew they could not survive. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,000 They didn't call it the Nile. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,000 The ancient Egyptians just called it the river. 8 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000 They knew it well. 9 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,000 They knew that once each year its waters would rise and then fall. 10 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:45,000 This yearly cycle of the river rising, flooding the land and falling again, 11 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,000 controlled their lives. 12 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:55,000 The Nile had power over them and they knew it. 13 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:00,000 It could bring them the gift of life or abandon them to starve. 14 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:06,000 And in different seasons the river reminded them that it could do both. 15 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000 In the heat of summer, the Nile showed a face the ancient Egyptians feared. 16 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,000 Nearly all of present-day Egypt is desert. 17 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:25,000 It forms part of the hottest place on earth, the scorching Sahara. 18 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,000 Very few people live in this harsh environment. 19 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Most of the population live beside the river that flows through the desert, the Nile. 20 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:47,000 The ancient Egyptians called the desert, with its dry sand, the Red Land. 21 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000 And they called the land beside the river, with its fertile soil, the Black Land. 22 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:06,000 And just as in Egypt today, the desert is called the Black Land. 23 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:13,000 And just as in Egypt today, the people lived on the Black Land. 24 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,000 But during the heat of summer in ancient times, 25 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000 the dry Red Land threatened to swallow up their moist Black Land. 26 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:37,000 As the months passed, the people watched the water in the river gradually disappear. 27 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,000 It evaporated in the baking heat of the sun, 28 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000 leaving less and less for humans, plants and animals to share. 29 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000 The ancient Egyptians knew their river. 30 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,000 They knew this dry season would be followed by a rise in water level. 31 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000 But they also knew that sometimes this rise came late. 32 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,000 They prayed to the Nile, because they knew what would happen if it did. 33 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000 Hail flood, when you are late, everyone is orphaned. 34 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,000 The whole land suffers. 35 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:27,000 The ancient Egyptians called the Nile's flood water, the inundation. 36 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:31,000 They never knew where the water came from. 37 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 They imagined it bubbled up from an underground sea. 38 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,000 It was impossible for them to know, because the water that flows down the Nile 39 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,000 begins its journey thousands of kilometres to the south of Egypt, 40 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,000 far beyond the limits of the world the ancient Egyptians knew. 41 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:59,000 Every year, the people watched anxiously for a sign that the flood water was on its way. 42 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:02,000 The flocks of sacred Ibis, migrating north, 43 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,000 arrived in Egypt at the same time as the rising waters. 44 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000 As a messenger of the flood, the Ibis was much respected in Egypt. 45 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,000 Thoth, god of wisdom, has the head of an Ibis. 46 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,000 As scribe to the gods, he dips his pen in ink, 47 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,000 just as the Ibis dipped its beak in the waters of the Nile. 48 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:33,000 Between June and September, the people watched the water level in the river rise, 49 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000 until the banks of the Nile were flooded. 50 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 Between June and September, the people watched the water level in the river rise, 51 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 until the banks burst, allowing the water to flood the land on either side. 52 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,000 This was a time for great celebration. 53 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,000 Hail Flood. 54 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,000 When you rise, there is joy in the land. 55 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,000 Every belly is glad. 56 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:23,000 Everywhere there is laughter. 57 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:28,000 For you, people sing and clap their hands. 58 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,000 Emergence. 59 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,000 The ancient Egyptians called the season after the months of flooding. 60 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:44,000 Because the land emerged, it appeared from underwater. 61 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,000 By about October, much of the water had drained away, 62 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:54,000 leaving on the land the rich black silt it had carried for thousands of kilometres. 63 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,000 When river creatures appeared from the silt, 64 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:10,000 it must have looked to the ancient Egyptians as if the river waters had brought them to life. 65 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,000 This was the busiest time of year for the farmers. 66 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000 They divided up the land into fields, 67 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,000 and began sowing seed in the new layer of moist, fertile soil. 68 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000 The main crops were wheat and barley. 69 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,000 They dug ditches to direct water to their vegetable patches. 70 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,000 Within a few months, in these perfect growing conditions, 71 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,000 the fields would be filled with ripening crops. 72 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:01,000 The people of Egypt 73 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,000 In the face of disaster, the people looked to their pharaoh. 74 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,000 He was the guardian of order in ancient Egypt. 75 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:31,000 As the son of Ra, the sun god, 76 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:35,000 he was the link between the people and the gods. 77 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,000 It was his responsibility to provide for the gods' needs, 78 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,000 praying to them and presenting them with offerings 79 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,000 so that they would look with favour on the people of Egypt. 80 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:57,000 If he did his duties well, then chaos could not triumph in Egypt. 81 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,000 Order would reign. 82 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:04,000 Whatever disasters came, they would pass, 83 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:08,000 and the cycle of life in ancient Egypt would continue. 84 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:14,000 The Nile, the life-giving river, would deliver its flood, 85 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:19,000 and the harmonious balance of the world of ancient Egypt would be maintained.