Ancient Egypt and the Arabia Felix, the rhythm of the flood seasons

Deserts border the two shorelines of the Red Sea. Along these shorelines are two coun­tries whose verdant fringes have been struggling to resist the desert since the IVth mil­lennium BC — two countries that are highly dependent on seasonal flood cycles. On the east there is Arabia Felix, present-day Yemen. On the west is Egypt, to which most of this chapter is devoted. The River Nile dominates and unifies the powerful and innova­tive Egyptian civilization. This civilization precedes the transition to the Hellenistic period and the flowering of Alexandria, described later in Part II of this book.[86]