Geography

The dominant feature of the region covered by this book is the River Nile. Through most of its length it flows through desert, and there is little in the way of significant uplands until Ethiopia.

The land is so burned and sterile that it supports no herb and no manner of tree, except where the river Nile waters the ground when it is flood; in these parts alone a great abundance of wheat can grow.

— William of Tyre

The Nile is generally accepted to be the same as the River Gihon, one of the four rivers of Paradise. Its source is shrouded in mystery, the subject of scholastic debate, and the goal of several expeditions into Ethiopia Orientalis (for more on this issue, see Between Sand and Sea).

The Nile Valley is hemmed in on both sides by desert. The only habitable land is a narrow fertile strip which floods each year between June and September, depositing a rich layer of black silt. The river is lined with palm gardens and orchards, and broad fields beyond that. The Nile is the only source of water for much of Egypt and Nubia, where no rain falls at all in many years. The flood of the Nile is known to result from an abundance of rain in the Abyssinian Highlands.

Between Nubia and Ethiopia are the Abyssinian Highlands, sometimes known as the Land of Havilah. This region incorporates the Semien Mountains that form the eastern border of the Ethiopian Empire, and is home to the island-studded Lake Tana.

Three deserts enclose and surround the regions covered in this book. The mighty Libyan Desert forms the western border of Egypt and Nubia. The Nubian Desert lies between the Upper Nile and the Red Sea. Finally, the Danakil Desert separates the Nubian Kingdom of Atbara from the Ethiopian Empire. The most common terrain in all three deserts is ergs: rolling windswept sand dunes.