Water in Ancient Egypt 

The Ancient Egyptian Farming Cycle

 

 

           Crop growing and farming was a way of life for the Egyptians and it would have been extremely hard to live without it. The major crops they grew along the Nile river included wheat, barley, vegetables, melons and pomegranates. To make it easier to grow and farm, the Egyptians spilt the year up into three seasons, The ‘’Akhet, Peret, and Shemu’’ season. Each season was very different from one another but ended up benefiting from each other. The ‘’Akhet’’ season which ranged from June to September and flooded in those certain months. ‘’Peret’’ season also known as the growing season happened from October to Febuary. Lastly the ‘’Shemu’’ season happened in March to May where the Egyptians focused on harvesting. The 2 main seasons are Peret and Shemu (growing, and Harvesting) After the plants would flood, the fields would go dry. They would either die or wither. The Nile left mud behind that need to be watered very often because of the hot sun. Egyptians tried to trap as much flood water as possible so they didn’t have to go to the river. They built mud-brick reservoirs to trap and hold the water.