Notes

About the same time as the civilizations in Mesopotamia were developing, the Egyptians were creating a civilization along the Nile River. At over 4,000 miles long, the Nile is the longest river in the world. If the Nile were located in the United States, it could begin in New York City, stretch across the entire country to Los Angeles, California, and still have another 1,000 miles to go.
Recall from the previous lesson about Early Humans (Lesson 1) how important rivers were to early civilizations. Just as the Mesopotamian people relied on the Tigris and Euphrates to survive, the people of Egypt needed the Nile. This is because water is very hard to find in much of North Africa. Most of the region is part of the largest desert in the world, the Sahara. As you probably know, deserts receive very little rain each year.
Egypt itself lies in the northeast corner of the African continent and the Sahara. The flowing waters of the Nile allowed civilization to flourish in what otherwise would have been a barren, unforgiving, and mostly lifeless desert. The Nile was the source of life for the people who settled there.
The Nile flows north through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. The source of the Nile is south of Egypt in a high mountainous region, in modern-day Rwanda. This elevated area is called Upper Egypt because it is upstream. In Upper Egypt the river flows very fast and has many steep waterfalls called cataracts.
As water flows downstream from Upper Egypt, it eventually passes through Lower Egypt. Although it is called Lower Egypt, this area is actually further north of Upper Egypt. Once the water passes through Lower Egypt, it empties into the Mediterranean Sea.