Question:
Because of this predilection for a northerly orientation, European
explorers
coming from the Mediterranean into the Nile Valley literally, and
geographically, turned Egypt upside down.
So black vs white is not enough for you? Now you want to change the
definition of up & down ?
Answer:
An interesting fact about the Nile is that it is the world's second longest
river which flows from south-------------> to<--------------------- north. The
migratory pattern of ancient Africans who navigated the Nile, from "up south"
to "down north," was to later play a major role in the development of
civilization in ancient Egypt.
Within the singular body of the Nile River are six low-lying areas of rocky
waterfalls called cataracts. These cataracts posed the only major impediment to
the continued navigation of vessels through the river. Because the Nile flows
from the south to the north, to travel "down" the Nile would mean traveling in
a "northerly" direction. It was because the northerly flow of the Nile that
southern Egypt was originally referred to as Upper Egypt - and the north, Lower
Egypt.
The references to the numerical order of the six cataracts plays an important
role in determining one's perspective of Egypt in both ancient and modern
times. When traveling "down" the Nile in a northerly direction, from south
central Africa to the Mediterranean, the ancient Nilotic people encountered the
First Cataract in Sudan, north of Khartoum, and the Sixth Cataract, in Egypt
south of Aswan.
