Sugarcane is a widely grown crop in the Nile Basin, but its destructive effects on soils, water resources and biodiversity have become increasingly apparent.
As the thirsty crop draws down water resources, aquatic species like the critically endangered Nubian flapshell turtle suffer a loss of habitat, forage and nesting sites.
In an effort to revive soils, diversify diets and incomes, and boost water levels that many animals rely on, communities are implementing agroforestry projects in lieu of monocultures.
The resulting “food forests” attract an array of wildlife while refilling wetlands and river systems where the culturally important flapshell turtles swim.
New findings suggest people living in the ancient empire of Nubia in northern Sudan were manipulating the river to their advantage as far back as 3,000 years ago.
River 'groynes' are rigid structures, laid perpendicular to a shore or bank, that humans still use to this day to manipulate the flow of water and silt.
They're highly useful, and farmers and boaters along the Nile have known that for much longer than we ever knew.
The Yellow River in China used to have the oldest known groynes in the world. But not anymore.
Researchers in Australia and the United Kingdom have found evidence that Nubians were using groynes 2,500 years before farmers in China were doing the same. Using satellite data, local surveys, and previous studies, the team revealed hundreds of groynes that still stand in Sudan to this day.
Sobek is an Egyptian deity of fertility and life, who created the Nile river with his own sweat, and brought life to the whole river. He's also well known for being a god who enjoys of terrenal pleasures, as food and sex.
"Serve me, and your pleasures will have no end"
(Ok, I need MUCH MORE practice with colour).
The translation ‘burnt face' is inaccurate and unquestioningly dismissed within truly Ethiopian circles. You based your question on false premises.
Contrary to what many assume, the word ‘Ethiopia' is not derived from the Greek language. It is derived from Ge'ez (ancient Ethiopic), and from the older Sabawi language.
The Amharic word ‘Ethiopia' is a shortened version of the Ge'ez Ethiop-Ghion(ኢትዮጵግዮን) . The Ge'ez word Ethiop-Ghion itself is congruent with the Sabawi (Ag'azian) word ‘Enqopazeyon' (እንቆጳዝዮን).
Therefore, the first and accurate name of the country we today call 'Ethiopia' is Ethiop-Ghion.
Now, what do 'Enqopazeyon' or the Ge'ez ‘Ethiop-Ghion' mean, and why was the country named so? That is the question I can answer.
'Ethiopia' means ‘The present of yellow gold from Ghion river'. Ghion is the true name of the river which today's non-Ethiopians call the Nile.
Ethiopia is a gift of yellow gold; the gold you see today on the banks of the Nile river.
The accurate derivation is as follows:
“Et”/ ኢት= Present/Gift.
“Yop”/ዮጵ= Gold.
“Ghion”/ግዮን= The Nile river.
The final answer for your question, which ai modified for your benefit, will finally become the the following:
The words Ethiop-Ghion and Enqopazeyon both mean to denote the geographic features of the country and a spiritual quality. These two (geographical features and spiritual essence) are the major themes behind her name.
Remember:
not “Burnt face”. but,
“Gift of yellow Gold, and specifically the type of gold on the banks of the Nile river” is the only accurate translation.
Abdel Aziz and the conservators finished their work on the columns in the Mut Temple’s porches on March 7. This photo and most of the others in this post were taken by Abdel Aziz in the final stages of the work and at the end. If you compare this shot with the next picture (taken some years ago), you’ll see what a difference their work has made. We are incredibly fortunate that they were willing to take on this project. And we are most grateful to Abdel Aziz for taking all the photos for the last few posts.
Just a reminder that this is what the porches looked like before the 2023 season, with fallen column drums lying helter skelter in the East Porch and the collapsed column blocking the view of the rams near the West Porch.
On March 4 Ayman supervised the lifting of what should have been the final column drum in the west column. It turned out not to fit, no matter how they tried, so it had to be taken down and left beside the column.
By March 6, the west column was finished. It looks much better than it did at the start of the season, when it was pretty much a heap of sand. Now at least you can tell it is a column.
This is the West Porch on March 7, with the column restored as much as it could be and the whole area cleaned up.
And here is the East Porch on March 7. While there are still miscellaneous column fragments that can’t be put back in place, the porch is looking much more organized.
A leftover piece of business from our shortened season. While working in the north square in Temple A, we uncovered these three pieces of diorite (not to scale): the back of a throne (left), part of a torso (top) and a hand. On the torso fragment you can just make out the bandeau at the bottom that ran under the breast and part of the broad collar at the top left.
It wasn’t until the season was almost over that we realized the fragments came from the lone Sakhmet statue on the north side of the court – why we didn’t think of this immediately we don’t know. The hand and throne fragment fit easily, but the statue’s torso was too damaged for the breast fragment to be reattached. When they finished with the columns, the Egyptian conservators re-attached the hand and throne back, and left the torso fragment sitting on the statue’s lap.
Almost every evening around sunset we watched huge flocks of ibises fly north. We don’t know where they came from or where they were going, but the flights were beautiful.
We close this last post of our last season with a view of the moon setting over the Nile. We will miss the beauty of this place as well as the people there we have come to know and love.