There have been five main episodes of the Nile: the Eonile (Miocene, 5-6 mya), when the Mediterranean was significantly lower than it is today; the Palaeonile (Pliocene, 3 mya), when the Mediterranean was significantly higher than it is today; the Protonile (Middle Pleistocene, 600 kya), when the course of the river was more westerly than today’s; the Prenile (Late Pleistocene, 500-125 kya), which was probably the largest river ever to flow through Egypt; and the Neonile (Late Late Pleistocene, 30 kya), which became the Nile when the Neonile cut down to the modern level (Holocene, 10 kya).
Egypt’s climate has fluctuated with time and caused changes in the vegetation of the valley and the desert. During Prenile times, Egypt received more precipitation than today and many areas of the desert probably resembled modern African savannahs. This precipitation continued until about 50 kya but by Neonile times conditions had become increasingly arid. A brief pluvial period 10 kya brought back savannah-like conditions to the western desert. From this time on, however, Egypt became increasingly arid until the modern period of hyperaridity became established around 5000 years ago. The Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula would have been a natural route for early men migrating from Africa to Asia and Europe. This possibility is supported by the earliest evidence of early man outside Africa being found at Ubeidiyeh in the Jordan Valley. But six thousand years of cultivation of the floodplain and shifts in the river have eroded the older deposits so the evidence for the presence of the Oldowan industry in Egypt is both meagre and much disputed. Stone tools found at Abu Simbel in Lower Nubia have been dated to 700 kya.
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