Akhet

Akhet


 * Other Names:**

//Aketo, Axt//


 * Hieroglyphics:**



Ancient Egyptian life revolved around three seasons - //Akhet// (the inundation, from July to October), Peret (the time of plowing and sowing, from November to February), and Shemu (the harvest, from March to June.) Nearly one-third of the population was involved in agriculture, which was vitally important to the well-being of Egypt.

The inundation was the annual flood of the Nile, due to the heavy summer rains in the Ethiopian highlands, swelling the different tributaries and other rivers that joined and became the Nile. This happened yearly and brought fertility to the land in the form of a deposit of rich, black silt. The amount of silt left behind determined the amount of crops that the Egyptians could grow - if the inundation was too low, it would be a year of famine. If the inundation was too high, the water would flood and destroy houses, and there may have been not enough time for the water to recede to grow and harvest crops before the next flood. Irrigation canals and dams were built in attempts at water regulation.

During the time of inundation when the fields were flooded, tens of thousands of farmers were unable to work in the fields. They joined the pharaoh's skilled labor force and received wages working on huge building projects like temples or pyramids. This was not done, as originally and incorrectly thought, by slave labor. During the initial stages of the flooding, the Nile would turn a brownish-red as it carried rich soil from the interior of Africa downriver - the inspiration of the Biblical story of turning the Nile to blood.

Various deities were associated with the inundation, such as Khnum and Sobek, but none more so than Hapi. The annual flooding of the Nile was sometimes referred to as the “Arrival of Hapi” - the inundation was also referred to as a "large" or "small" Hapi. The start of the inundation was marking by the rising of the star Sirius, and also marked the day of the Egyptian New Year. The Egyptians relied on the star, seen as the goddess Sopdet, as the herald of both the new year and the yearly flood.

The building of the Aswan High Dam in 1970 stopped the annual inundation of the Nile.

The Seasons of Ancient Egypt