Nilometer

Nilometer

The Nilometer is one of several buildings and architectural structures built to measure the annual inundation of the Nile. Because the inundation would fluctuate, the comparative prosperity of those who depended upon it would also fluctuate.

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An efficient taxation system would need a way of measuring the likely yield of farmers’ fields, and by extension, the likely yield from the farmers themselves.

Nilometer records go back over several millennia.