Nilometer

About Nilometer

Structure for measuring the Nile River's clarity and water level during the annual flood season

The Nilometer on Roda Island is a unique monument of the Abbasid period, built in 861 CE to measure the height of the Nile during the annual flood, and one of the oldest surviving Islamic structures in Egypt. The flood was a matter of life and death for Egyptians from pharaonic times: a low Nile meant poor harvests and famine, while too high a flood swept away villages and fields. Nilometers were therefore built in three forms, all calibrated in cubits: a vertical column, a stairway descending to the river, or a deep well connected to the Nile by a culvert, with a mark showing the level the fields needed for good soil; the reading also fixed the farmers' tax rates. The Roda Nilometer is of the third type: a deep stone well, square above and round below, with an octagonal marble column graduated in cubits at its centre, fed by three tunnels at different levels. A spiral stone staircase descends into a startling interior that Wikivoyage likens to the endless staircases of M.C. Escher, and the well is now covered by a small building with a conical dome. Nilometers remained in use through the Tulunid and Mamluk periods and into modern times until the Aswan High Dam made them obsolete in the 1960s. It stands at the southern tip of Roda Island beside the Manasterly Palace and the Umm Kulthum Museum, with fine views over the Nile.

Where:

Cairo, Egypt