Nilometer: Innovative Tool Measuring The Nile’s Water Levels In Pharaonic Egypt

A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Since antiquity, the Egyptian civilization has depended on the Nile River, relying heavily on its annual floods for sustenance and prosperity.

Nilometer on the southeast side of Elephantine Island in Aswan, Egypt. Imagec credit: Olaf Tausch – CC BY 3.0

Without the Nile River, the country could not exist. The Nile was the foundation of life, and at the same time, the basis of the ancient Egyptians’ religion, work, food production and the calendar.

But the Nile’s flooding was unpredictable. High floods could devastate settlements surrounding the river, while low floods reduced or destroyed crop yields and caused diseases.

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