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© Royal Geographical SocietyPeople first settled on the banks of the Nile about 5,000 years ago. Back then people believed that the river came from seas buried deep underground that burst onto the surface.

This may be a myth, but it is certainly true that the Nile was the lifeblood of Ancient Egypt, one of the world's greatest civilisations that lasted 3,000 years!

Ancient Egyptians were really clever people, and they made the most of the river's riches. Roll over the symbols to find out some of the ways they used the river to help them.

I found this picture of a contraption invented by Ancient Egyptians called a shaduf. For them, it was a really important piece of technology. Can you work out how they used it and what for?

When think you know the answer, click on http://www.historyforkids.org/crafts/egypt/shaduf.htm to see if you're right!

Ancient Egyptians were great architects too. Did you know that the Great Pyramid is still the world's heaviest building? We learned many interesting things about the pyramids and how to write in hieroglyphs when we visited the Sahara desert. Click on the icon to see what we found out!

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© Crispin Hughes/Panos Pictures Ancient Egypt may be ancient, but there are other peoples that have lived along the Nile for almost as long, like the Dinka in Sudan. They live in swamps that feed water to the White Nile. Can you guess what the Dinka women are doing in the picture?

Changes in the Nile were important days in the Ancient Egyptian calendar. For them, New Year's Day was July 15th when the brightest star in the sky called the 'Dog Star' re-appeared. This was a sure sign that the Nile's waters were rising upstream, and soon water would flood their fields.

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© Dieter Telemans/Panos Pictures The Nile's floods each year are still very important for people living beside the river today. Can you guess? The picture gives a clue, and it's not just cooling your feet!

Follow me to the next page to answer Harry's question!