Nile Delta

Emergence and introduction of hieroglyphs, * first pyramid at Saqqara for
Memphis’ Pharaohs, and unification of Upper and Lower Egypt from Aswan’s first cataract area near Philae to the Nile Delta. The First Dynasty also gave further prominence to the black goddess Isis (Aset), as throne protector and cobra eye of the sun god Ra.

This study aims to trace changes in the River Nile flows over the Late Quaternary and is based on palynomorphs which were embedded in the sea floor of the Levantine Basin. The palynomorphs were extracted from two marine sediment cores, which cover the last 86 ka and are located at the two ends of the Levantine Basin: MD-9509, at the southern part of the Levantine Basin, and MD-9501, at its northern part. Core MD-9509 was taken from the Nile cone and is characterized by high sedimentation rates and a good state of palynomorph preservation. The assemblages included palynomorphs which were transported via the Nile headwaters and therefore enabled the reconstruction of the River Nile flows. The results demonstrate that the last glacial period (~75e16 ka) was characterized by a decrease in Nile water discharge and an increase in sediment influx, while opposite trends were observed prior to the last glacial period as well as during the deglaciation and the Holocene. Based on the study of the spores, it is suggested that during the last glacial, the main contributors of freshwater and sediment load to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea were the Blue Nile and the Atbara and only during interglacials was there a more significant contribution of the White Nile. Within the northern core, MD-9501, pollen was preserved only during the formation of sapropels S3 and S1. The comparison of the sapropelic palynological spectra in both core sites clearly indicates that during sapropel deposition, climate conditions were more humid in the Northern Levant, reflecting the north-south regional Mediterranean climatic moisture gradient. Sapropel formation was a result of the intensification of the monsoonal climate system which was most probably related to the maximum insolation values at 65 N, while, currently, the Atlantic is the main influencing climate system in the region. One of the most interesting observations in this study is that during Heinrich Events H2-H6, which originated in the north Atlantic and were identified in MD-9509 based on minimum arboreal pollen percentages, pollen originating from tropical regions was not embedded in the Levantine Basin. These results lend support to the view that episodes of dryness in tropical/sub-tropical Eastern Africa were associated not only with low-latitude climate controls, but also with high-latitude glacial stress.

"This study refutes both the Western dominant paradigm of modernity and the Eurocentric stereotype of traditional Muslim culture, and demonstrates that rural Egyptians have their own paradigm of secular modernism that does not negate religious or sacred orientations. Islam is associated with ongoing attempts at religious purification and cultural unification and is inimical to cultural homogenization encouraged by Western globalization.

Provides a holistic interpretation of the interplay between religion and folk cosmology, challenging the stereotypes that relegate traditional people to backwardness and a peripheral space or locality. Within this Muslim society the global/local nexus is one of ongoing creative integration, not separation. The cosmology can best be understood in the context of its totality, encompassing both visible and invisible zones.

Muslims articulate personal or private order as well as social order within their cosmology. This cosmological view, endowing people with a unique imaginative sense of engagemenet with a supraphenomenal reality, accentuates the belief that divine cosmic invisible higher power surpasses any other power. Such a belief represents an inexhaustible source of spiritual and emotional empowerment that may be politically mobilized in certain critical moments and depicted as a religious, holy struggle, or jihad.
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The Nile Delta Aquifer (NDA) is threatened by salt water intrusion (SWI). This article demonstrates an approach for identifying critical salinity concentration zones using a three-dimensional (3D) variable-density groundwater flow model in the NDA. An innovative procedure is presented for the delineation of salinity concentration in 2010 by testing different simulation periods. The results confirm the presence of saline groundwater caused by SWI in the north of the NDA. In addition, certain regions in the east and southwest of the NDA show increased salinity concentration levels, possibly due to excessive groundwater extraction and dissolution of marine fractured limestone and shale that form the bedrock underlying the aquifer. The research shows that the NDA is still not in a state of dynamic equilibrium. The modeling instrument can be used for simulating future scenarios of SWI to provide a sustainable adaptation plan for groundwater resource.

Accounts and images created by foreign travellers on the Egyptian Nile over the past four centuries indicate the widespread use of rafts and floats for both local and long-distance travel. Many of the materials employed survive poorly in archaeological deposits, or are otherwise easily overlooked as components of river-craft: moreover, several of these raft-types were built for a single journey or season, then dismantled. These travellers' accounts and images alert us to much humbler vessels than the well-preserved wooden boats of the Pharaonic elite which have so far commanded the attention of maritime archaeologists.

http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3615-4/the-nile-natural-and-cultural-landscape-in-egypt

A fair part of the western Delta seems to have been inundated by a sea-transgression during the late Old Kingdom. It was caused most probably by the 4.2 ka BP-event, causing an eustatic rise of the sea. This hypothesis  explains why settlements in the Middle Kingdom and the SIP were concentrated in the eastern half and the western edge of the Delta whereas in the western half one finds a void. This situation also explains why the easternmost Nile-branch became in this time and the New Kingdom the most important rivercourse. This should focus our mind on installations along this waterway. Besides the harbours of Avaris and Piramesse, it is this region where from strategical point of view one would expect the localisation of the famous Thutmosid port of Peru-nefer which allowed perannual seatraffic. Even in the period of draught during the spring season the sea penetrated the nearly empty Nile channels and allowed navigation from a port not more than 40 km from the coast throughout the year.
We don't hear about Peru-nefer after Amenhotep II untill the end of the 18th Dynasty. This lack of records is reflected in the stratigraphy of the site of Tell el-Daba with a hiatus after this king until shortly before the Amarna Period. Remains of a fortress may be associated with the fortification activities of the Nile mouths  of Amenhotep, Son of Hapu. The fortress was enlarged under Horemheb. It seems that the presence of Near Easterners from the time of the Hyksos until the New Kingdom and the period of the Delta-residence Pi-Ramesse in the 19th and 20th Dynasty can be followed to some extent by the presence of Canaanate cults in all three town phases of Tell el-Daba - a site which was endowed throughout these periods with a big harbour basin. This suggests to some extent a continuum within a fast changing world.

PDF : https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:126477
Cet article veut clarifier le nombre d’effluents dans le delta du Nil à l’époque pharaonique et en préciser la localisation. Par ailleurs, la définition d’une branche du Nil y est interrogée. Il est en effet proposé de considérer que les hydronymes désignant les branches du Nil ne concernent pas une branche au sens strict et moderne du terme, mais peut-être tout le bassin hydrographique dépendant d’un bras majeur. Cette proposition permet de concilier les informations livrées par les sources anciennes et nos connaissances actuelles de la géomorphologie du Delta, tout en expliquant certaines incohérences apparentes de la documentation pharaonique.

This article examines the links between the toponyms Hout-Ihet and Hout-Our in the Western Delta, as well as their reading and the evolution of their spelling. It also seeks to understand their meaning and the evolution of it. Finally, it considers their relationship with the city of Imau and offers a new outline of the religious history of the third province’s metropolis of Lower Egypt.

From the earliest example currently known in the beginning of the fourth dynasty, to the Roman period, the ancient Egyptians produced geographical lists to order the world around them. They listed and classified the different parts of the territory they occupied. Among the geographical entities conceived by the Egyptians are the different provinces of Egypt, equally called nomes or sepat. To order the regions of Upper Egypt, the task was relatively easy. The provinces were arranged along a single axis, the Nile, and they could simply be catalogued along the river course from South to North. However, the issue is more complex for Lower Egypt. Unlike the Nile Valley, this region does not have an absolute reference that dictates the succession of lands. Therefore, several orders are known to enumerate the provinces of the Delta. One of these, attested in the Greco-Roman period, is considered as "canonical" by the egyptological tradition. In contrast, the lists that adopt different layouts are often considered to be divergent. However, the fluctuation of the order of the provinces of Lower Egypt is not as random as is sometimes thought. Indeed, these changes take place within sequences of nomes which remain consistent and which are always arranged in the same way. Moreover, when the question is considered as a whole and no longer on a case-by-case basis, it appears that the various attested orders are not random or chaotic, but belong to a given period. Thus, there is an evolution of the order of the nomes of Lower Egypt through the ages. The order which has been retained as "canonical" by the egyptological tradition is just the last attested state of the arrangement of the nomes of the Delta. Moreover, it presents some peculiarities which can only be explained by integrating it into this long series of changes in which each state derives from the preceding one. These changes were motivated by different factors. The Delta is a dynamic territory in which nomes were created at different times. Each time, they disrupted the existing order and led to changes. Moreover, the internal logic of the sequences has also changed under the influence of the new provinces. Thus, an order that was originally geographically coherent has gradually become geographically illogical.

Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel. Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean, can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as markers of increased ...

The excavations at Bubastis and two new kiln findings from Egypt. In the Early 90s the excavations in the temple of Tell Basta (Bubastis) were resumed. In collaboration of the Universities of Potsdam and Zagazig the ruins of the Temple of Bastet is secured in its portfolio, opened with new excavations continue and partially reconstructed. During the tenth season of excavations in the spring of 1998, two furnaces were excavated, which convey a remarkable technological level despite significant interference from old excavations and uncontrolled excavation. They are dated to the 1st and 2nd centuries.. Both furnaces, a ceramic kiln and furnace, be classified typologically well. Paralleien to the kiln findings can be found throughout the Roman provinces room. Function and structure can be reconstructed in comparison with recent examples. It illustrates the strong influence of Roman culture on the technological development of Egypt in the first centuries AD. At the same time, the furnaces are but part of the systematic destruction of the older heritage in the form of the temple, of being left behind by the Materialraubbau the last two millennia only a 'skeleton'. When dealing with the relics of this destruction phase as well as with the architectural elements of the Grand Temple, new clues to its former dimensions and its eventful history arise.

مدينة ههيا تقع في المركز الهندسي لمحافظة الشرقية، وهي من المدن القديمة ذات الأصول الفرعونية، كما تم ذكرها في موسوعة وصف مصر تحت أسم (مدينة)، وهذه الدراسة محاولة لرصد معدلات التحضر بالمدينة ومدى تأثير ذلك على النمو العمراني، أيضا الوقوف على أهم الاثار الناتجة عن التحضر في محاولة لتقييم مشاكل التحضر ووضح حلول لها، وذلك من خلال عدة مناهج أهمها المنهج التاريخي والمنهج الإقليمي. الأصول التاريخية للمدينة ووقوعها وسط شبكة حضرية قديمة امتدت عبر آلاف السنين، ووجود شبكة قوية للنقل الحديدي والمائي والبري ساهم أيضا في زيادة معدلات التحضر بالمدينة وتأهلها لتصبح حاضرة مركزها الإداري منذ نحو 135عام بدون انقطاع. وقد بلغ عدد السكان بمدينة ههيا في التعداد الأخير للسكان عام 2017م ما يزيد قليلاً عن ستة وستون ألف نسمة، وهو ما شكل 3.9% من إجمالي حضر محافظة الشرقية. كما حدث نمو عمراني غير مسبوق بالمدينة، فبلغت مساحتها ستة أضعاف ما كانت علية في منتصف القرن العشرون. وبالتأكيد أثر النمو العمراني السريع على فقدان مئات الأفدنة التي تعد من أخصب الأراضي الزراعية وتحويلها الى مناطق سكنية، كما أدى أيضا هذا النمو الغير مخطط الى دخول عدة نويات ريفية والتحامها بالمدينة، من جهة أخرى خلفت تلك المرحلة العديد من الاثار والتي ظهر في تبعية المدينة للمدن المجاورة وظهور أشكال من العشوائيات داخل الكتلة العمرانية.





L'urbanisation de la ville d'Hehia et ses effets géographiques

Résumé

Hehia est une des villes du centre de la province de Sharkia. Elle est une ancienne ville aux origines pharaoniques. L’encyclopédie de la description de l’Égypte l’a mentionnée sous le terme (ville). Cette étude se fixe comme objectif le suivi du taux de croissance démographique de la ville et son impact sur l'extension urbaine, ainsi que les effets les plus importants de l'urbanisation; en essayant de proposer des solutions aux problèmes liés à l'expansion urbaine. Cette étude a utilisé plusieurs approches, dont les plus importantes étant l'approche historique et l'approche régionale. Outre les atouts historiques de la ville et sa situation au cœur d'un ancien réseau, l'existence d'un réseau voie ferrée, fluviale et terrestre a également contribué à l'augmentation du taux d'urbanisation de la ville. Tout cela a permis à Hehia de devenir le chef-lieu du district administratif pendant 135 ans sans interruption.
En 2017, la population de la ville était plus de 66000 habitants, soit 3,9% de la population urbaine de la province de Sharkia. La ville a également connu une croissance démographique sans précédent, six fois plus grande que sa taille du milieu du XXe siècle. La croissance urbaine rapide s'est traduite par la conversion des centaines feddans de terres agricoles  les plus fertiles en zones résidentielles.  Elle a également conduit à intégrer plusieurs noyaux ruraux dans ville. D'autres nombreux effets sont apparus dans la dépendance de la ville aux villes voisines. Ainsi de nouvelles formes spontanées sont apparues dans la masse urbaine.

The Nile Delta of Egypt is known for its large irrigated
area supplied with water diverted from the Nile River,
with a limited use of groundwater, largely for domestic and
industrial use. Official statistics for the whole delta indicate
that there are a few thousand individual wells used for agriculture
by a population of over 2 million farmers. This study,
however, shows that a phenomenon of groundwater development
for irrigation has been unfolding over the last few years,
largely below the radar of managers and researchers. A survey
was carried out in the central part of the delta with the objective
of (1) uncovering the actual situation of groundwater use
in this part of the delta and (2) speculating on its implications.
The results of the survey pointed to a recent and booming
tube-well drilling industry, with well densities in some parts
reaching one well every 2 ha. The development of groundwater
abstraction in the central delta is strongly linked to inadequate
and/or untimely availability of surface water in the canals.
A technical, economic, and management characterization
of wells complements the study, showing a continuum
between purely private/individual ownership of wells and collective
investments and management. Lastly, the article
explores the implications of unchecked abstraction at the farm,
local and delta scales

Napoleon’s savants and European colonial engineers were quite consistent and categorical about one thing: Egypt had no water law – neither oral nor (more particularly) written. They rejected the idea that there had ever been any sort of rules to prevent conflict over the usage of Nile flood water (which could be especially problematic in low-volume flood years). They went on to maintain that - even if there once had been some sort of water law, the law - and its associated text - was only to be found in the very distant past (in Greco-Roman antiquity). They thus cleanly rejected the notion that Islamic Civilization was ever capable of producing and implementing any sort of ordered rules for water usage. As a long-overdue correction to this age-old assumption, we present here the textual and analytical evidence for Islamic Egypt’s water law. Though one or two scholars have noted the existence of the texts we analyze here, the water law contained herein has in fact never been recognized for what it actually was. So it seems fair to say that the ordered hydraulic system we present in this study has not only been denied proper scrutiny, it has surprisingly escaped detection altogether. We analyze here Islamic Egypt’s water law.
This water law was not merely oral but was in fact issued as a comprehensive, written text that was well-established and widely-implemented. It was a fundamental and even vital part of Islamic Egypt's Nile irrigation system. It was created in order to control and regulate demand so that the overuse of this common resource (during low-volume Nile flood years) would not lead to the kind of situation that we have modeled in our computer simulations (i.e., a Tragedy of the Commons). The two surviving texts of water law, as provided by al-Makhzūmī (via al-Maqrīzī’s Khiṭaṭ) for the latter 1100s CE, and Ibn Mammātī after him, detail the logic, ingenuity and sophistication of these hydraulic rules. What we do in this study is to look at exactly how hydraulic law-and-order was applied to the Alexandria canal. The Alexandria canal had been newly excavated at this time, a time when the water law appears to have been composed (by evidence of the rules within: 404/1013). The water law as it was applied to this famous canal lays out a system by which villages took turns at taking in water for their flood basins (turns evenly separated - both spatially and temporally). In this precise system laid down by written law, six turns at water usage occur in eight-day intervals – intervals that collectively stretched out over a 48-day period, a period that lasted from mid-August to late-September. Our conclusion is that this water law established an effective demand-rotation regime, one that we know (via surviving government memoranda from the Ayyubid period that we present and discuss in this study) was avidly enforced by the authority of the provincial governor and his staff. The water law functioned very effectively in our computer simulations - and it seems to have done so in practice as well. The same water law – with variations dependent upon terrain, elevation, volumetric concerns, and even conditional clauses for flood variations - was applied throughout the Nile Delta in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods – as it can be clearly discerned in the fragmented survivals of the original texts. It can also be glimpsed in abundant citations of these rules in Mamluk-era texts. Through the use of water law, Islamic Egypt was able to dramatically expand flood basin terrain (and cultivated acreage) in the Nile Delta (969-1348 CE), bringing prosperity to the inhabitants of Egypt's floodplain.  Water law was one of the underpinnings of a long interval of hydraulic sophistication for Egypt - and for medieval Islam, an interval that is only now beginning to receive proper attention.

Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel. Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean, can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as markers of increased ...