Joyce A. Tyldesley - Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt

Not only is the Egyptian climate peculiar to that country and the Nile different in behaviour to other rivers, but the Egyptians themselves, in most of their manners and customs, exactly reverse the common practices of mankind. For example, the women attend the markets and trade, while the men sit at home and weave at the loom The women likewise carry burdens upon their shoulders while the men carry them upon their heads Sons need not support their parents unless they chose, but daughters must, whether they chose to or not.

Herodotus tells of the wonders of Egypt

When the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt at the very end of the dynastic period, he was struck by the topsy-turvy nature of both the land and its people. There was no question about it, Egypt was a very peculiar country. The climate could only be described as unusual, the River Nile behaved like no other river in the classical world, and the relations between the sexes were simply extraordinary. Herodotus had never before encountered women who appeared to be as free as their menfolk, and he was intrigued by their behaviour. As he travelled around the country he made detailed notes of all that he observed, taking every opportunity to participate in local customs and chatting to the locals wherever possible. On his return to Greece he recorded his experiences in a combined travel-guide and history of Egypt; the first book to introduce the exotic and mysterious land of the pharaohs to European readers.

Herodotus was quite correct to single out the long thin geography of Egypt as a crucial factor in the development of her people. The River Nile, flowing north through a narrow strip of cultivated land to branch into the separate streams of the Delta, dominated every aspect of Dynastic life, and it would be impossible to gain any insight into the thoughts and deeds of the ancient Egyptians without an understanding of the land in which they lived. As Herodotus himself remarked, in an often-repeated phrase, Egypt is the gift of the Nile.

Egypt is an African Mediterranean country with close geographical links with Palestine and the Near East. The first cataract of the Nile, just to the south of the modern town of Aswan, marks the traditional southern boundary of Egypt, although at times of imperial expansion this border was pushed further south into Nubia. Conventionally, this southern region is known as Upper Egypt while the northern area including the Nile Delta is known as Lower Egypt. To the north, Egypt is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea. During the Dynastic period the narrowness of the fertile land effectively restricted expansion to the east and west of the Nile, though the deserts were exploited for natural resources as and when required. Egypt maintained fluctuating economic ties with her immediate neighbours Nubia to the south and Syria and Palestine to the east while contact with the more distant lands of Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Crete led to Mediterranean and Near Eastern influences being absorbed into Egyptian society. However, thanks to her abundant natural resources and her geographical near-isolation, Egypt was able to remain a basically independent and self-sufficient country throughout her long history.

The Egyptians themselves knew their country as the Black Land, referring to the all-important ribbon of highly fertile soil which lined the banks of the Nile. The cultivated Black Land was in turn enclosed by the Red Land, the barren desert and cliffs which were only suitable for the construction of burial grounds and royal tombs. The difference between the fertile Black Land and the infertile Red Land has always been both clear and extreme, and many visitors to Egypt have noted how it is literally possible to stand with one foot in the desert sand and one foot on the green cultivation. This perpetual reminder of the stark contrast between the living and the dead, the fertile and the infertile, left an indelible mark on secular and religious thought, and the constant cycle of birth, death and rebirth became an endlessly repeated theme of Egyptian life.