Back to All Events

Nilometer, Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt

Designed for measuring the height of the flood waters on the River Nile each year, Ancient Egyptians used this gauge, in part, for predicting the level waters would rise further downstream. But its real function was to help calculate how much to charger farmers elsewhere in Egypt for their irrigation water. A canny measurement device – of course reconstructed today, but in its original position, just below the Temple of Khnum, right by the first cataract.