At the beginning of agriculture in Greece, Vth millennium BC, the abundant precipitation of spring and autumn obviated the need for irrigation. But irrigation eventually does develop in the Greek world. The earliest written reference to it comes from the Iliad: “As one who would water his garden leads a stream from some fountain over […]
Рубрика: Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations. 5,000 Years of History
The Cretan cities and palaces: urban hydraulics brought to perfection
Crete was inhabited by migration from Anatolia, probably at the end of the VIIth millennium BC. Its more highly developed civilization, the Minoan, dates from about 2100 BC. This maritime empire was apparently a peaceful one, since neither palaces nor cities were fortified — and this despite the threatening face of the monster that the […]
The maritime civilizations of the Aegean Sea: urban and agricultural hydraulics
The first great European civilizations are found in and on the shores of the Aegean Sea — and thus in direct maritime contact with Egypt and Syrian ports. The earliest such civilizations are the Cyclades thalassocracy in the IIIrd millennium BC, the first maritime power of the Mediterranean; then Minoan Crete beginning at the end […]
The oasis of Maryab; the great dike on the wadi Dhana
Maryab is the largest city of the region during the period of the sudarabic kingdoms. It occupies some 90 hectares enclosed by a 4.5 km wall. The site, apparently dating from the IInd millennium BC, is located some ten kilometers downstream of a gorge through which the wadi Dhana leaves the mountains. This wadi, typical […]
The qanats in Egypt under the Achaemenid Empire
In Chapter 2 we described the invention of the qanat in Urartu and its development in Persia. After the conquest of Egypt by Cambyse, qanats are introduced in Egypt to irrigate the oases as well as the mountainous zones situated along communication routes (the wadi Hammamat, between Thebes and the ports of the Red Sea). […]
A thousand years of traffic on the Necho canal
So what is the actual path of this ancient canal? We know it fairly well, since the remains observed in the twentieth century substantially agree with the descriptions of Greek and Roman travelers. The canal issues from the eastern branch of the Nile, follows the southern edges of the wadi Tumilat valley, passes by Tell […]
The great accomplishments of Egypt in the first millennium BC: from the last pharaohs to the Persians
Who dug the first “Suez Canal”? Egypt had a long tradition of maritime commerce with countries on the shores of the Red Sea (in particular with the country of Punt, situated approximately east of Sudan and north of Eritrea). The port of Mersa Gawasis was founded in about 1900 BC under Amenemhat II (Middle Empire), […]
The search for Lake Moeris
Among all the Greek travelers, Herodotus is the only one to have visited this region (in 460 BC) prior to the new hydraulic works implemented by Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC. Having admired the Labyrinth, the funeral monument of Amenemhat III, he then describes a lake of very large dimensions, oriented approximately north-south: […]
The pharaoh and the lake: the great hydraulic works of the IInd millennium BC
In prehistory the Joseph canal, or Bahr Youssouf, supplied water to Fayoum through an ancient arm of the Nile. At that time Fayoum comprised an immense body of water and marshes, with a water surface elevation somewhat below that of the Nile. Little by little, sedimentation raises the elevation of the plain. In about 7500 […]
The “marvelous” lake of Moeris. Fifteen centuries of work to develop Fayoum
The Fayoum Depression, located 80 km southwest of Memphis (see Figure 3.1) in the “lake province” of the ancient Egyptians, was prized by the pharaohs and viewed as a marvel by Greco-Roman travelers. Strabo wrote: “(This region) contains also this admirable lake that is called the Lake of Moeris and has the dimensions and color […]