THE MILESTONE OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION: NILOMETER

Abstract

The lands of ancient Egypt have come to life with the fertile waters of the Nile River since the earliest times. The Nile, the source of life for Egypt, sometimes faced floods and experienced disasters and sometimes had to grapple with famines and shortages. For this reason, measures have been tried to be taken with irrigation channels, and this negative situation has been tried to be eliminated with mica or nilometers that measure the water level. The high water level was also reflected in the tax rates of the sovereign states in Egypt, and the high level of product even affected the increase in tax rates. The Egyptian society, which fed its stomach from the Nile, was able to go to extremes such as sacrificing even young concubines to the Nile in order to raise the water level, and organized festivals and celebrations for the Nile. Although the scales measuring the water level have preserved their existence in every period, they have been ruined from time to time and could not maintain their existence at the same rate as the majesty of the Nile. Despite these cuts, new measures continued with new construction activities and witnessed the establishment and collapse of states. Scholars as well as rulers played an active role in the establishment of this order. The greatest physicist of the Middle Ages, such as Ibn al-Haysem, a mathematician and astronomers such as Fergani; Many names from mathematicians-astronomers to philosophers also contributed positively to this process.