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Black History Month
Life Along the Nile
Age/Grade Level or Audience
Elementary and middle school geography and history classes.
Description
Study the extensive history of the Nile.
Procedure
Assist students in preparing a history database, scroll, or time line of the Nile River. Include mention of earliest inhabitants, the builders of the pyramids and sphinx; colonial explorations; the removal of Abu Simbel to accommodate the building of the Aswan Dam; and more recent developments, such as the earthquake of October 1992, which destroyed much of Cairo. Have groups of students contribute segments to the overall study of the Nile, then bind the finished reports into a single scrapbook about the river's rich history.
Sources
Brown, Leslie, Africa: A Natural History, Random House, 1965.
"Journey up the Nile," National Geographic, May 1985.
Murphy, E. Jefferson, Understanding Africa, Crowell, 1978.
Murray, Jocelyn, ed., Cultural Atlas of Africa, Facts on File, 1989.
Alternative Applications
Discuss how western fiction and nonfiction writers celebrate the Nile in their works, including William Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra and the explorer Richard Francis Burton in Goa, and the Blue Mountains and First Footsteps in East Africa.