How do natural features such as rivers, lakes and mountains unite people or keep them isolated from each other?

How do natural features such as rivers, lakes and mountains unite people or keep them isolated from each other?

Hapi the God of the Nile

The Nile was a very important part in the lives of ancient Egyptians. The Nile was the reason an advanced civilization survived for 3,000 years. The Nile affected many of the ancient Egyptian’s activities such as their way of governing, their religious beliefs and how they farmed. The Nile not only directed the way of life, but it also brought people together.

 Egyptians worshiped the Nile, they thought it was so great that they created a religion that revolved around the precious river. However, the Nile wasn’t perfect, like most things in life. During the year the Nile would flood, sometimes too much and sometimes too little. When the water swelled too much, problems were created. Sometime the crops would be washed away, or people and livestock would be drowned. When the Nile didn’t flood enough the farm land would become parched and unusable, crops would not be able to grow. These problems both farmers in upper and lower Egypt had. They decided to take care of the problem together, instead of doing it alone. This brought people together, working in order to make their life easier. As a result it worked! They created a calendar, organized seasons and improved irrigation systems. This was the start to the world’s first nation-state.  

The calendar that the ancient Egyptians created!

On the other hand, rivers, lakes and other natural formations isolated the ancient Egyptians at first. In the beginning ancient Egyptians were grouped in nomes. They were isolated from each other because the natural formations and distance. By 3500 B.C all the little villages were joined together creating two large kingdoms. Before this unification, Egypt’s little villages were isolated from each other because of the distance between the villages. Then at the time of 3000 B.C upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were all in one nation-state. The Egyptians decided to join together to make one great nation. This happened because of one long river… The Nile.