The Nile in Egypt

[Music] [Applause] [Music] the great Sahara Desert of Northern Africa hot dry barren only rarely do the people who live on this desert catch a glimpse of plant life and yet a map of this desert region would show that Egypt a country bordered on three sides by the Sahara has several Rich agricultural areas how is this possible in a region with so little rainfall the answer is the Nile river which brings water from distant regions where there is rain rainfall and makes agriculture in Egypt possible the main agricultural areas of Egypt are a wide triangular area to the north the Nile Delta and a long narrow strip to the South the Nile Valley this scene is typical of the Nile Valley with the Sands of the desert just behind a narrow strip of cultivated land green with with crops lies along the Riverbanks the people cultivate only as much land as can be reached with the Waters of the river since the earliest days of civilization in the Nile Valley men have developed ways of carrying river water to more and more land some of the ancient methods of irrigation are still used today this simple machine is called a shaduf river water is scooped up and poured onto the land a counterweight makes the work easier these men are using a double shadu another ancient irrigation method still used by the people of the Nile Valley is called the Sakia it is a kind of water wheel turned by an animal usually an ox buckets attached to the Turning wheel scoop up the water which is then emptied into irrigation ditches children often have the job of keeping the animals moving and turning the wheel this device the Archimedes screw was brought to Egypt by the ancient Greeks inside the wooden barrel is a winding screw which Scoops up and lifts water as a crank is turned the water may be lifted as much as 3 ft into the irrigation ditches when one row has received enough water its ditch is closed and another is opened every day the rows of crops must be watered in this way one by one during the growing season through the hard work of thousands of farmers and through the lifegiving water of the river the Nile Valley has throughout history been one of the Fertile regions of the world the Nile is in flood each year between June and August the water r brushes down from the mountains of Ethiopia and Eastern Africa carrying with it tons of red silt the silt which is the basis of Egypt's rich soil is deposited along the banks of the Nile Valley and in the Nile Delta as the flood subsides it leaves the wet soil which the farmers immediately sew with crops the the floods of the Nile and the amounts of silk they deposit vary causing the lean years and the years of plenty referred to in the Bible since Biblical times and even before men have dreamed of controlling the mighty Nile so that every year might be a year of Plenty a step toward that dream was the building of the Aswan Dam in 1902 the dam stores some of the flood waters which are released later in the year the S1 Dam only one of several irrigation Works along the lower Nile in Egypt has a huge Reservoir that will store more than 175 billion cubic feet of water down river there are a number of water barricades like this one called bages a barage is something like a low Dam its purpose is to divert River Water behind the structure into nearby irrigation canals by raising the height of this water a few feet this overhead view indicates how water behind a barage is diverted into irrigation canals such canals some of which are quite wide bring water to the greater part of the Agricultural areas of Egypt besides being the chief source of of water for irrigation the Nile is also Egypt's major trade Highway Boats May travel 900 mil between the Sudan border on the south to the Mediterranean Sea on the North Egypt's largest Mediterranean Port is Alexandria on the Nile Delta the main commercial Harbor Goods may be trans shipped unloaded from Oceano freighter and reloaded on river barges going to Cairo another port on the Delta this barge is now entering the port of Cairo Cairo is the capital of Egypt a commercial and industrial center with a population of more than 2 million boats can travel south from Cairo up River as far as the Sudan by using a system of locks that raises them above the bages and dams the Nile is navig able at all times except during the flood season then it is much too treacherous when the flood comes down carrying silt to the valley and Delta of the Nile the slle gates of the Aswan Dam are opened this is done because the amount of water is so great only a small part of it can be stored in the reservoir another reason for opening the gates is to allow the water to maintain its speed otherwise the large amount of red silt that is being carried by the rushing flood waters might settle out and fill up the reservoir when the flood has passed its highest stage the gates are closed and the reservoir allowed to fill as the water level rises the Ancient Temple of filey located on an island within the reservoir is slowly submerged the problem of preserving similar historic buildings located on what was once dry land was only one of many that faced Engineers who planned an even larger Reservoir and Dam farther Upstream the reservoir of this High Dam is capable of retaining more than 200 billion cubic yards of water more than enough for the Farms of the Nile Valley and Delta actual construction of the Dam built of rock sand and clay was begun in 1960 slowly the Dam took shape a massive embankment more than half a mile wide at its base and 300 ft High it is built to back up a huge Reservoir the reservoir as this bird's eyee drawing indicates forms the second largest man-made lake in the world storing enough water to irrigate large agricultural areas water from the reservoir passes through underground tunnels cut beneath the dam at the downstream end of these tunnels is a large hydroelectric Generating Station the electricity produced here is destined for Cairo and the heavily populated area of the Nile Delta and is transmitted over power lines that will one day crisscross the Barron desert now harnessed as a source of electrical power the Nile Remains the traditional Transportation Highway of Egypt and the major source of the water that irrigates Egypt's Fields the ancient systems of feeding this water to the crops will slowly disappear they will be replaced by newer more efficient methods more areas of the barren desert will be converted into productive Farmland by the Nile in Egypt