Good Communications. In ancient Egypt, communication was unusually easy. Of course, the Egyptians lacked most of the things twenty-first-century citizens think of as necessary for simple and effective communication: there was no organized postal system, no news media, and, obviously, no telephone service or World Wide Web. But of all the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean world, the Egyptians probably enjoyed the most advantageous circumstances from the point of view of communication, and these favorable conditions probably explain in no small part the cohesion and long life of Egyptian Pharaonic civilization.

Egypt and the Nile. What were the advantages that Egypt enjoyed? First and foremost was the Nile River, a natural highway that made it possible to move people, goods, and ideas easily from one end of Egypt to another, a distance of about 650 miles. Egypt is mostly desert, and so the great majority of ancient Egyptians, like...