User Guide

restored. If the floodplain land you have built farms
on begins to lose its fertility, you might consider
building new farms on more fertile land and demolish-
ing the old ones.
61
Farming and Food Production
with information regarding the next flood. Check in
with your Chief Overseer for the latest Nilometer
reading so you can plan for the coming year and adjust
food production as necessary.
The only things you can build on the flood plain are
farms, roads and Irrigation Ditches. All other buildings
would be destroyed by the flood.
BBuuiillddiinngg FFoooodd aanndd FFaarrmmiinngg SSttrruuccttuurreess
All the structures in this section can be built by click-
ing on the “Food and Farming Structures” button in
the Control Panel. The menu that pops up lists all the
food and farming structures available to you. Some
regions may not be able to support all types of farms
and food structures.
FFllooooddppllaaiinn FFaarrmmiinngg aanndd WWoorrkk CCaammppss
Farming on the flood plain can be very productive.
Acre for acre, floodplain farms tend to yield more
crops than meadow farms (see page 62), but the grow-
ing season is limited due to the Inundation, and the
farms are harvested only once every year.
Floodplain farms generally produce more because the
land there is usually more fertile. Not all floodplain
land, however, is equally fertile. The darker the flood
plain and the lusher the grass growing on it, the more
fertile it is. Info-click on a farm to find out its land’s
fertility.
The flood plain’s fertility depends upon the flood’s
waters. Every time a farm on the flood plain is har-
vested, the fertility of the land is depleted. If the flood
waters do not replenish the land, its fertility is not
60
Farming and Food Production
Peasant Life
Ahket, 12th year of Ramesses
Midday
Dear Journal,
As I walked towards the Storage Yard
where our items for trade were stored, I
thought how fortuitous our timing was. The
Inundation was due to start in a couple of
weeks, and all the crops had just been harvest-
ed. Egypt's Granaries are filled to capacity
right now, and I'm sure the trade minister
will be eager to unload some of the surplus.
The Nile is truly a blessing to this land.
Without it, Egypt would be like so many lands
in this region: hot, dry and infertile. Because
the river fertilizes the land each year, Egypt is
able to grow diverse crops like grain, barley,
flax, chickpeas, pomegranates and figs, to
name but a few. The Inundation is remark-
ably reliable, too. Granted, some years the
Inundation is lower than in others, but only
on the rarest occasion has the Inundation
been too low to fertilize the land.
As I walked through the peasants'
neighborhood, I saw the men of the house-
holds preparing for their journeys to the desert
where they will help build
Pharaoh's tomb. The gov-
ernment conscripted
many of these men to do
this hard work, but the
workers will be paid.
Most of them consider it
an honor to help
Pharaoh to immortality.
Food and Farming
Structures Button