Chapter 838 Nile River
Bifang rode a camel and galloped wildly in the desert, raising a cloud of sand.
The pyramid behind him gradually shrank and finally disappeared above the horizon.
Although delayed by the mummy for two days, Bifang did not forget his important business, and the completion notification for the mission of crossing the Sahara had not appeared yet.
The scene around me gradually changed, from sand dunes to sandy land, and then to grassland. The colors around me became increasingly rich and bright, as if I was far away from that restless world of yellow sand.
Finally, the drone that was constantly filming in the sky captured a river above the earth.
A clump of reed-like plants grew on one side of the river bank, swaying in the wind, lush and green.
Although summer is hot, it is also a season full of vitality.
After climbing over a hill, Bifang looked down at the deep and broad river from the highest point. It is the longest river in the world.
When seeing this extremely wide river, its name suddenly came to everyone's mind - the Nile River!
[Nile! Nile! Nile!]
[Go, go, go, I succeeded, I really crossed the Sahara! ]
【Number one in the world!!!】
[What is a world-class explorer? ! ! ]
[Prince Mu gave the anchor a spaceship *66——the best in the world!!!]
[Soaring into the sky, I present a spaceship to the anchor*6——No. 1 in the world!!!]
[15 centimeters as a gift to the anchor's spaceship*1. ——The best in the world!!!]
Bifang got off Alpha, stepped on the hillside and slid down with some sand, staggered a few steps, and stopped at the river bank.
For two months, a full two months, he could clearly feel the changes in his body, like a sponge that kept absorbing water and being squeezed dry again and again.
Tired, sleepy, hungry, thirsty, hot.
Excited, thrilled, full, moist, cool.
Complex emotions and physical sensations intertwined to form a large web of memories, which entangled a rich fruit in the forest of memory, and eventually became shaky and fell from the branches into the soil.
It takes root, sprouts, branches out, and leaves grow, and finally turns into a towering tree, becoming a complete member of the forest.
Bifang's eyes became brighter and deeper, and all the fatigue in his body was swept away.
[Congratulations to the host for completing the mission: Thousands of miles of ocean currents, crossing death, lost in ancient tombs, rewards are being calculated...]
[Final rewards: High-level skill enhancement coupons * 2, muscle control enhancement coupons * 1, mitochondrial enhancement coupons * 1, enhancement points * 5, wilderness points * 5047. ]
Bifang showed a happy smile and had a great harvest.
But he temporarily suppressed the system prompt and refocused his attention on the river in front of him. A heroic spirit seemed to rise in his chest.
"Most of the territory of northeastern Africa where Egypt is located is desert Gobi, and the climate is dry and rainy. Even with the most advanced technology today, its development value is not very great."
"It was thanks to the Nile River that the civilization of ancient Egypt was built."
"Relying on the nourishment of the Nile River, the ancient Egyptians thrived and created an ancient Egyptian civilization that was unparalleled at the time."
"The Nile River is the longest, but the freshwater resources it can provide are limited, with an annual runoff of only 84 billion cubic meters, which is completely dwarfed by the 950 billion cubic meters of annual runoff of the Yangtze River."
"The amount of runoff determines the amount of freshwater resources, the basic resource for human production and life, while the size of the river basin directly determines the living space of human civilization."
“But it had a flood period that was a blessing in disguise.”
"The Nile River has the characteristic of periodic flooding. In northern Sudan, the water level usually starts to rise in May and reaches its highest level in August. After that, the water level gradually decreases, with low water levels from January to May."
“Although flooding occurs regularly, the amount of water and the timing of high tides vary greatly.”
"This phenomenon is caused by the Blue Nile and Atbara rivers, which are fed by heavy seasonal rains in the Ethiopian highlands."
The audience listened patiently.
They knew that this three-month live broadcast was coming to an end.
This may be the last live broadcast.
More than 80% of the Nile River's water is provided by the Ethiopian Plateau, and the rest comes from the East African Plateau lakes.
When floods come, they will submerge farmland on both sides. When the floods recede, they will leave behind a thick layer of silt, forming fertile soil.
Four or five thousand years ago, the Egyptians knew how to control floods and utilize the fertile land on both sides of the river.
For a long time, the Nile Valley has been full of cotton fields and fragrant rice flowers. Sandwiched between the Sahara Desert and the Arabian Desert, the winding Nile River is like a green corridor, full of infinite vitality.
"The river water rushed down with the black soil of the East African plateau, and only slowly slowed down in the middle and lower reaches, forming a moist fertile soil area."
"So, the ancient Egyptians only needed to sow seeds in October every year, and God would bless them. There would be a bumper harvest in the spring of the following year. And because of the hot climate, the crops could be harvested three times a year."
"According to the Greek Dodd, farmers there only need to wait for the river to overflow and flow to irrigate the fields, and then return to the riverbed. Then everyone will sow seeds on their own land and let the pigs step on the seeds. Then they just need to wait for the harvest."
[This is too rough]
[It’s Dodd again, he appears on screen too often]
[Maybe they gave me an appearance fee (dog head)]
Bifang blew a whistle to ask Alpha, who was watching on the hillside, to come down.
The huge Alpha looked at the steep slope and tried many times. Finally, he stepped carefully on the slope, sliding little by little, and came to the river bank.
Bifang led the camel along the Nile River, feeling the water vapor on her face. Every deep breath seemed to moisten her lungs that were filled with wind and sand.
"This kind of farming method that relies on the weather for food is most suitable for the development level of early humans. The Egyptians in the Nile River Basin easily enjoyed the abundance brought by agriculture in the ancient times when production technology was extremely low."
"With sufficient material foundation, ancient Egypt became the first country in the world to break away from the primitive tribal form and establish a slave state."
"However, there are so many rivers in the world, and it's not just the Nile that will flood. Basically, all of the four major rivers in the world will flood. The Nile River Basin has a typical tropical desert climate. Although it is hot all year round, as long as there is water and fertile soil, crops will grow well at any time as long as seeds are planted in the soil."
"Take our Yellow River as an example. Although it floods regularly in summer and autumn every year, the flood season is over and the weather is cold. In winter, it is very cold and even freezes."
"Everyone knows that the temperature is too low for crops to grow naturally."
"When the temperature rises in the spring and summer of the following year, the rice seedlings in the fields have not yet fully grown, and the flood season comes again. When the flood comes, the dry land becomes paddy fields. This is the Loess Plateau, not the water town of the south of the Yangtze River. We can't grow rice here, so we'll suffer."
"Therefore, the people in these places only found some high-lying mountainous forests to live in, and the corresponding agricultural harvest would be much reduced, and there would not be enough material guarantee to build a relatively large and advanced national civilization."
"The tropical desert that covers almost all of Egypt's territory outside the Nile River basin has also become an important factor in Egypt's leading position in the world."
"Perhaps many people doubt that tropical deserts are suitable for human survival, which is certainly reasonable, but in special historical periods and special environments, there are exceptions."
Is it that complicated?
[Human development ultimately depends on the Earth’s support]
“It’s more complicated.”
Bifang casually broke off a piece of paper straw that looked like a reed.
"Tropical deserts have two characteristics. One is the fluidity of sand, which determines that it can fill gullies but cannot build mountains. Therefore, desert areas must be flat. Although sand dunes seem very high, they are only a small earth slope of tens or a hundred meters."
"The second reason is the extremely dry climate, which determines that the evaporation of water in the desert environment is extremely alarming. At the same time, the water permeability of the sandy surface is good, and the ability to absorb surface water is strong."
“These two points may seem insignificant, but they are extremely important to the formation and development of early Egyptian civilization.”
"The terrain is flat, so when the Nile floods it covers a larger area."
“Secondly, when the deserts around the basin are washed away by the fertile soil brought by the floods of the Nile during the flood season, fertile plains may be formed.”
"When the Nile River floods, due to the huge evaporation and strong surface permeability, these advantages, plus the natural characteristics of sand cutting mountains and filling ditches, there will be no large lakes and swamps around the Nile River after the flood season."
"To say this now, it may be a huge disadvantage due to the serious lack of natural water storage function, but five or six thousand years ago, this was very beneficial to the development of Egyptian civilization."
Lakes and swamps have natural water storage functions, but they are difficult to develop and utilize.
If it is to be used in agriculture, humans will need to build dikes and dams and dig canals to guide water.
As for swamps, it is more difficult to develop them into farmland.
For thousands of years, the Egyptians could only rely on the weather for their food. Their technology and resource reserves were extremely backward, and they were unable to make effective use of lakes and swamps.
Not to mention building dams, they don’t even know how to use the canals.
I don’t have that ability.
The special geographical environment of the lower reaches of the Nile River does not make it possible for large lakes to form.
After the flood, the area around the river basin had sufficient water and fertile soil, making it the most suitable place for primary agriculture, and Egyptian farmers could sow and harvest as much as they wanted.
This is something that many other regions do not have.
"In the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, until the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, humans were still desperately fighting floods."
"It was not until Dayu succeeded in controlling the flood that we finally had farmland of a certain size and were able to obtain enough resources to support our evolution from a primitive tribe to a national civilization."
"After Dayu died, his son Qi founded the Xia Dynasty, the first dynasty in Chinese history."
【Dayu is awesome!!】
【My brother Yu in society! 】
【It has to be us! 】
Bifang smiled.
"Huaxia faced greater survival pressure, so they quickly came up with dam and canal technology, which was able to utilize lakes, and was the latecomer in development."
"There is no good chance for human survival in today's tropical desert environment and the Nile River. But the times were different then. Thousands of years ago, the ingenious combination of the two gave birth to ancient Egypt, a leading civilization at the time."
“If we expand on this, we will find that the fundamentals of advanced civilizations in ancient times are very similar to those of the Nile.”
"Among the four ancient civilizations, except for Egypt, the middle and lower reaches of the Mesopotamian River where Babylon is located, and the middle and lower reaches of the Indus River where India is located, all of them are a combination of large rivers and tropical desert environments. China is the only exception."
Those who might cause a flood have all fled.
Those who don't cause floods have not pointed out higher development technology.
Only China was unique in that it not only did not escape, but also managed the flood.
"In short, due to the extremely low ability of early humans to transform nature, the emergence and development of civilization was extremely dependent on the innate natural environment, and the role of human subjective initiative seemed too small."
"In this case, only when the innate environment is very suitable and humans only need to master a small amount of low-level farming skills to produce enough food can a civilized country be born first."
“So nothing is static, it’s always changing.”
"At the beginning of civilization, this combination of tropical desert and large rivers had obvious advantages, but as human civilization progressed, its disadvantages gradually became apparent."
"After all, the development potential of desertified land is limited. When human technology develops to the point where it is capable of fully developing and utilizing more difficult land such as lakes and swamps, Egypt will be washed up on the beach by the waves behind."
"Among the four ancient civilizations, China was formed later, but it came from behind and became the leader in one fell swoop."
“Indian civilization arose in the Indus River Basin, but its center of civilization shifted with the development of the Ganges River Basin.”
"Although the Mesopotamian region where Babylon is located has always maintained its status as a first-class geopolitical plate in the Middle East, this status is largely due to its geographical location advantages. However, in terms of the production potential of the plate itself, it has long been far behind China and India."
“Although Egypt was the forerunner of the four ancient civilizations, it also declined the most thoroughly.”
"As other regions were developed, they surpassed Egypt's comprehensive strength. When the geopolitical strength of these regions developed to the point where they were capable of external expansion, Egypt became the target of conquest by foreign forces."
"Persia, Macedonia, Rome, Byzantium, Arabia, and the Ottoman Empire all forcefully incorporated Egypt into their territories."
[Alas, things change over time]
No Empire Lasts Forever
[Is it about to end? ]
Bifang used her fingernails to peel off the skin of the papyrus stem she had just broken off , and then used a knife to cut it into long strips along the direction of growth, and placed them horizontally and vertically.
"Do you see the 'reed' in my hand? It's not a reed, but papyrus, a plant that looks like a reed and is grown in abundance in the Nile Delta."
"If you cut it like I did and overlap it, and then hit it with a mallet, the juice will seep out, and after it dries, the strips will be permanently bonded together, and finally polished with pumice, it can be used as paper."
"This was papyrus, the most advanced writing medium in the world at the time, and it became an important document for later scholars to study ancient Egyptian civilization."
"But since papyrus is not suitable for folding, it cannot be made into a book, so many pieces of papyrus must be glued together into long strips, and then rolled into a roll after writing, which becomes a scroll."
"So we often see that some ancient Western documents are scrolls. If it were in ancient times, perhaps my adventure this time would be recorded on such a scroll and passed down from generation to generation?"
Ending with a little piece of knowledge, Bifang did not delay any longer and gave a two-finger salute to the drone that was gradually rising higher and flying over the other side of the Nile River.
"This story ends here, but it's not the end. I'm Bifang. See you next time."
As the drone flew over the Nile River and through the small oasis, Bifang eventually turned into a black dot.
Disappeared.
