Egypt
- Climate Change During Dynastic Egypt?
AFP (Christophe de Roquefeuil) As world experts grapple with ways to contain global warming, researchers gathered in Egypt are seeking answers from the country's pharaonic past to help tackle environmental problems of the present. Blessed with incomparable...
- Climate Change: Sites In Peril
Archaeology Magazine (Andrew Curry) My excuse for featuring this article is that as well as looking at the impacts of climate change on archaeological sites from many parts of the globe, it looks at the effects that desertification in the Sudan will have...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Environment: Uncertainty About Climate Change Impact On Nile
Egyptian Gazette NB - the story on this page will expire shortly. One scenario set out by climatologists is that global warming in Egypt could speed up the River Nile evaporation process and lead to a decline in fresh water supplies, exacerbating the...
- Travel: The Complete Guide To Nile Journeys
The Independent on Sunday (David Else)Picture a map of Africa, and divide it in four. The top right-hand bit – the north-eastern quadrant, for the geographically minded – is dominated by the Nile. It has two main tributaries: the White Nile, flowing...
Egypt
Ethiopian lake may shed light on end of Old Kingdom
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=33182007
"Global warming is one of the greatest threats to present day civilisation but work by a team of Scots scientists suggests the ancient Egyptians may have been earlier victims of climate change.
The pharaohs ruled their empire for hundreds of years, spreading culture, architecture and the arts before it collapsed into economic ruin. Why that happened is one of the great mysteries of history. Now a team of scientists from Scotland and Wales believe the answer lies beneath the waters of Lake Tana, high in the Ethiopian Highlands, and the source of the all-important Blue Nile. Samples taken over the past two years from sediments beneath Tana, which supplies the water which makes the lower Nile valley so fertile, reveal the lake may have almost dried up during the critical period around 4,200 years ago due to climate change. According to the team's theory, the flow of water on which the farm-based ancient Egyptian economy thrived would have slowed to a trickle, causing a devastating famine that lasted for 200 years. That would have been enough to destroy the Old Kingdom and its people, leaving only the pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza as their legacy to history. "
The pharaohs ruled their empire for hundreds of years, spreading culture, architecture and the arts before it collapsed into economic ruin. Why that happened is one of the great mysteries of history. Now a team of scientists from Scotland and Wales believe the answer lies beneath the waters of Lake Tana, high in the Ethiopian Highlands, and the source of the all-important Blue Nile. Samples taken over the past two years from sediments beneath Tana, which supplies the water which makes the lower Nile valley so fertile, reveal the lake may have almost dried up during the critical period around 4,200 years ago due to climate change. According to the team's theory, the flow of water on which the farm-based ancient Egyptian economy thrived would have slowed to a trickle, causing a devastating famine that lasted for 200 years. That would have been enough to destroy the Old Kingdom and its people, leaving only the pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza as their legacy to history. "
See the above page for the full story, plus reader responses.
- Climate Change During Dynastic Egypt?
AFP (Christophe de Roquefeuil) As world experts grapple with ways to contain global warming, researchers gathered in Egypt are seeking answers from the country's pharaonic past to help tackle environmental problems of the present. Blessed with incomparable...
- Climate Change: Sites In Peril
Archaeology Magazine (Andrew Curry) My excuse for featuring this article is that as well as looking at the impacts of climate change on archaeological sites from many parts of the globe, it looks at the effects that desertification in the Sudan will have...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Environment: Uncertainty About Climate Change Impact On Nile
Egyptian Gazette NB - the story on this page will expire shortly. One scenario set out by climatologists is that global warming in Egypt could speed up the River Nile evaporation process and lead to a decline in fresh water supplies, exacerbating the...
- Travel: The Complete Guide To Nile Journeys
The Independent on Sunday (David Else)Picture a map of Africa, and divide it in four. The top right-hand bit – the north-eastern quadrant, for the geographically minded – is dominated by the Nile. It has two main tributaries: the White Nile, flowing...