Date palm
Palms and papyrus
The plants that grew in ancient Egypt were very different from plants that grow in America or Britain. The lotus and the papyrus plants, for instance, were (and are) very common in Egypt.
Egyptian environment
Egyptian animals
African environment
All our Ancient Egypt articles
All the Africa articles
Papyrus is a kind of reed which grows in wetlands along the banks of the Nile River. Date palms grew all over Egypt, and other palms that people used to make palm oil.
More about papyrus
History of dates
What is palm oil?
Importing wood to Egypt
There were not very many trees in ancient Egypt, because there isn’t enough water in Egypt to support big trees. When the Egyptians needed wood, they had to buy it from Lebanon, further north, and sail it south to Egypt on boats.
Early African boats
Papyrus plant
Food plants in ancient Egypt
There were also plants which are more familiar in the United States like wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas, and figs. Egypt was especially famous for producing huge amounts of wheat, thanks to the Nile flood every year.
History of wheat
Where are chickpeas from?
What’s the Nile flood?
A field of wheat growing
Egyptian people made some of their wheat into beer; Egypt is the only Mediterranean country where people mainly drank beer instead of wine (though beer was also popular in Mesopotamia).
Where can I find documentation on the present of beetroot in Saqqara? The internet makes such claims but I need a primary source record.
This seems to provide what you are looking for? http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Beet
The picture above is not date palm trees, that is the picture of coconut trees which is is not grow on egypt
Thank you! I’m sorry about the mistake and will fix it promptly.
Are these two plants the main plants?
No, there are thousands of different plants that grow in Egypt. Papyrus reeds and palm trees are important because there are a lot of them in Egypt and not so many outside of Egypt, and because papyrus is what you use to make the paper that Egyptians used.
Egypt is a country on the continent of Africa, and definitely NOT ‘Mediterranean country’.
Egypt is both. Like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, Egypt is an African country that is also a Mediterranean country, because it borders on the Mediterranean Sea.
how did vegetation help then that’s what i want to know
i want to no how it helped them not what plants they grew
Hi Isabelle! Maybe these pages would be more what you are looking for: the history of wheat and barley, dates and olive oil and palm oil. Or just read our article on Egyptian food?
Oh, and also check out our page about papyrus! Good luck with your project, and feel free to write again if you have more questions.