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By Flavio Amico
King Menes
What Is Irrigation?
Irrigation was invented in Egypt after the unification of Upper Egypt and Lower
Egypt in 3150 BC, this was the kingdom’s first golden age. It was commanded by the
reigning monarch, king Menes. Irrigation consists in bringing water from a body of
freshwater, in Egypt’s case the Nile, near crops so that they can grow easily, this is
done through canals who carry the flood’s water annually. Another problem that
was solved with irrigation is that crops too near the Nile were in danger every flood
season, since the nile can easily carry them away. The Nile itself was also a great
contributor of the irrigation system in Egypt, the river’s annual flood season was easy
to predict and accurate, farmers would know exactly when it was time to let water in
each year, this was of course also due to the fact that seven hundred years before the
first 365 day calendar was invented, marking when the flood season will begin and
end. This system remained similar throughout the existence of ancient Egypt and
was considered the best for three millennials by most farmers and engineers. Even to
this day, Egyptian and international farmers base their irrigation on a concept
thought of more than five thousand years after it was thought of, this proves that
humans, in the end, can do their everyday jobs with little to know technology.
Although the concept might sound obvious in the 21st century, the irrigation of
crops was a big and fascinating discovery at the time, if the years in between us and
the creation of irrigation were kilometers square, the area covered would be bigger
than 30 sovereign nations.
Egypt wasn’t the only one to invent a working irrigation system, around the same
time Mesopotamians developed a similar mechanism on the Tigris and the
Euphrates, who can be found in
modern day Iraq and Iran. But this
was just a coincidence, the two
civilizations were barely aware of
each other and trade was far from
existing, the chances of the
innovation being copied are
minimal. During this time only
Egypt and Mesopotamia were well
developed, the two both had a
written language, wheels,
abundance in materials and an ideal
place to start a kingdom, other than
them the Indus valley became a
kingdom and the Mayans started
uniting in Guatemala, although
they both didn’t have any scripts. In some places in Europe oral language was not yet
developed and agriculture just became common, really behind Egypt, who was
having its first golden age, this was one of the first times in history in which some
humans had the resources to also satisfy their wants, there was no shortage of water
and food, people started living in cities, like the capital set by king Menes, Memphis,
a lot of important inventions were also made during this time period. This
innovation saved a lot of people’s lives, it made the difference in between abundance
of food and starving, little other systems like this one can be as efficient at growing
good crops, and will probably be found in history books for millenials to come.
The irrigation system changed the Egyptian lifestyle, less people needed to work in
farms, letting some of the poor have less fatiguing jobs and also letting some others to
work on projects for the rich, like the pyramids, in a few simple words: less demand
was needed in the agriculture industry. But what irrigation has done nowadays is
even more breathtaking, without this innovation the Romans would have never
invented running water, meaning that all the sinks, showers, washing machines and
all other objects using water will not be part of our daily life, also potable water
would be unlikely to exist. But going back to farms, although many of them now use
electricity to control the irrigation system, the concept of letting water from a
freshwater source to the crops is still the same, except that the water source can now
be hundreds of kilometers away.
In conclusion, irrigation has changed the way humans interact with water and the
Egyptians will be thanked for millenials to come for letting water where we want it.
Works Cited
“Ancient Egypt Irrigation.” Ancient Egyptian Embalming,
www.egykingblog.com/2015/10/ancient-egypt-irrigation.html.
“Egyptian Irrigation.” Ancient Egyptians for Kids ***,
www.mummies2pyramids.info/daily-life/egyptian-irrigation.htm.
“Irrigation Timeline:” Timeline, www.irrigationmuseum.org/exhibit2.aspx.
Mark, Joshua J. “Menes.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History
Encyclopedia, 6 June 2018, www.ancient.eu/Menes/.