Right, so in discussing agriculture and early river valley civilizations, we've been approaching history through the lens of resource distribution and geography. And just as the violent and capricious Tigris and Euphrates rivers shaped the worldview of early Mesopotamians, the Nile shaped the worldview of the Egyptians. Let's go to the Thought Bubble. The Nile was regular, navigable, and benign, making for one of the safest and richest agricultural areas in the world. Each summer, the river flooded the fields at precisely the right time, leaving behind nutrient-rich silt for planting season. Planting was so easy that Egyptians just tossed seeds around the silty earth and then let their cattle or pigs walk on it to press the seeds into the ground, and then boom, grain and figs and wheat and pomegranates and melons and joy. Unlike most river valley civilizations, Egyptian communities existed only along the Nile, which was navigable enough to get valuable resources downstream, from timber to gold, which the Egyptians considered the divine metal, thereby introducing an idea that would eventually culminate in Mr. T. The Nile was also easily tamed.