Annual Rise of the Nile

• The Annual Rise of the Nile is due to the Monsoon in Ethiopia which occurs between June and September.
• The Ancient Egyptians were dependent on the Nile for drinking water and Agriculture. Failure of the Nile to rise or a delay could mean starvation, therefore the water level was carefully recorded by Nilometers.

History

• The Ancient Egyptians dated the Annual Rise of the Nile from the heliacal rising of Sirius in June or July of the Roman Calendar. They based their four seasons around the rise and fall of the Nile.
• They used the Nilometer to measure the height of the Nile and record the annual rise and ebb of the Nile.

• Records had been kept since the time of the Pharaohs. Measuring the Nile enabled the Egyptian priests to announce the date of the first Nile Flood and the date of its maximum height.
• Taxation on agriculture was based on predicting how high the Nile would flood. On average, every fifth year, it would either be too excessive and destroy crops, or too low, and lead to drought.
• As it hardly ever rained in Egypt, everything depended on the Annual Flood of the Nile.

Water Level

• Lowest level:
  • June: The waters of the Nile first rose as early as the beginning of June, and continued rising until September.
  • September: the water level stabilised for two to three weeks.
• Highest level:
  • October: the level rose once more during October, reaching its highest level.
  • November to June: the level then declined to its lowest level in June.

The Reason for the Annual Rise of the Nile

• The Ancient Egyptian Mythology, they believed the Nile rose due to the tears Isis wept for her deceased husband Osiris.
• The flood waters are actually due to the annual heavy rains during the Southwest Monsoon, at the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, which starts in mid June and lasts until mid September.
• The source of the White Nile is Lake Victoria and its river systems in Uganda and Tanzania.

The Nilometer

1. A portable Nilometer consisting of a stick with heights marked off on it.
   • One was kept in the Serapeum, the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria. It was ritually brought out, and used to measure each rise in the Nile waters, before being returned to the Temple. Constantine I ordered it to be placed to rest in the church of Alexandria.
2.  A stone column in the river with the heights of the water marked off at intervals.
3. A flight of stone stairs leading down to the Nile with the heights marked off along the stair wall.
   • This type of Nilometer exists at Elephantine Island.
4. A channel from the Nile through a conduit that led to a deep cylindrical well within a Temple building, with heights marked off on the inner surface.
   • The Temple at Kom Ombo had this type of Nilometer.
   • The Temple at Philae Island had a Nilometer inside the Temple building.

Location of Nilometers along the Nile

• Elephantine Island
  • near Aswan, it was located near the Nile Cataracts on the Frontier of the Kingdom of Kush (Sudan). It was therefore the first place in Egypt where the rise in the Nile could be recorded.
• In the Temples
  • The Temple at Philae Island held a Nilometer.
  • The Temple of Kom Ombo had a Nilometer inside the Temple building.
• Cairo
  • Another Nilometer existed near Cairo, where the Nile rose about a week later than at Elephantine Island.
• Alexandria
  • There was a portable Nilometer in the Temple of Serapis.

Nilometer at Elephantine Island