This month's ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt) presents Terraforming the Nile Valley:  The Ancient egyptians as the World's First Great Environmental Engineers presented by Dr. Peter A. Piccione, Online Geographical Information System for the Theban Necropolis (OLGIS-TN) & Satellite Survey of Western Thebes College of Charleston, University of Charleston, S.C.

This lecture presents the work of the University of Charleston Online Geographical Information System for the Theban Necropolis and the observations of the Satellite Survey of Theban Tombs Project with a focus on the landscape of Western Thebes, and then Egypt beyond. Here we argue that the Egyptians were the world’s earliest terraformers on a mega-scale, and demonstrate the ways in which they dramatically altered their landscapes. In this way, they were not the slaves of their environment, but were supreme exploiters, and they were not averse to making dramatic changes to their landscapes to suit their needs.