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Abstract
Ancient Egypt was divided into two Kingdoms, being Upper Egypt tl-sm’w south from the Libyan Desert down Abu Simbel and Lower Egypt !?-m/:lw north where the Nile Delta drains into the Mediterranean Sea. This terminology derives from the flow of the Nile from the highlands of East Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Egyptian Kings were known as rulers of the Two Kingdoms. Today there are two principal channels which take the Nile through the river’s Delta: One in the West at Rashid and the other in the East at Damiette. In ancient times the Nile split into seven branches (from East to West): Pelusiac, Tanitic, Mendesian, Phatnitic, Sebennytic, Bolbitine, and Canopic’,
The Libyan Desert (24 degrees North & 25 degrees East) located in the Northern and Eastern part of the Desert occupies South Western Egypt, Eastern Libya and North Western Sudan covering an area of approximately 1,100,000 square kilometers. It extends approximately 1,100 km from East to West and 1,000 km from North to South, in the shape of a rectangle. Ridges and deep depressions (basins) exist
in several parts of the Desert and no rivers or streams drain into or out of this area. The Desert’s Jilf al Kabir Plateau has an altitude of about 2,000 meters, an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments, forming a massive plain or low plateau. There are eight important depressions in the Libyan Desert, all considered Oasis except the smallest, Qattara, because of its salty water. Limited agricultural production, the presence of some natural resources and permanent settlements are found in the other seven depressions, all of which have fresh water provided either by the Nile or local groundwater 2.
The Siwa Oasis is close to the Libyan border and West of Qattara depression isolated from the rest of Egypt and has sustained life since ancient times. The other major Oasis includes Dakhla and Kharga in Egypt and Jaghbub in Libya which along with Siwa, forms a topographic chain of basins extending from AI Fayoum Oasis (sometimes called the Fayoum Depression) which lies 60 kilometers South West of Cairo, South to the Bahriyah, Farafra and Dakhla Oasis before reaching the country’s largest Oasis, being the Kharga Oasis”. A brackish lake, Lake Karun at the Northern reaches of AI Fayoum Oasis, drained into the Nile in ancient times and for centuries Sweet Water Artesian Well in the Fayoum Oasis has permitted extensive cultivation in an irrigated area that extends over 2,100 square kilometers4• (Map .1)
The main and most important characteristic of the Western Desert was the grazing. Most of the ancient Egyptian records refer to its economic evaluation with the representation of a large number of olive trees, cattle, donkeys and oxens.