Egypt in ancient times was a prosperous place, with its own religion and a highly developed apiculture. It had all to do with the Nile. The river Nile falls from high up in the middle of Africa down at a fast pace. It only slows down when it reaches Egypt. There it flows slowly and majestically through the desert. All the sediment the river took with it on its travel north settles in the calmer waters to the bottom. This was clearly visible after the seasonal inundations when fertilizing mud covered the fields. The Nile Delta where the river meets the Mediterranean See consists completely of sediment. The sediment made the land on both sides of the Nile very fertile and made the inundations both frightful and welcome. These shores rich in nature and protected from the surrounding world by desert were ideal for a sedentary existence of agriculture. With the agriculture came the beekeeping. (Thanks to Bert Hogervorst Egyptologist and Polranny Pirate)