- relevant for [[Collared Mage]] > [!quote] [[Why didn’t civilization develop around the Rhine river the way it did on the Nile, Indus, Fertile Crescent, etc]] > > If I had to pick a river and ask why large ancient civilizations seem scarce in its vicinity, I’d not pick the Rhine. It’s a relatively small river. Most of it has no floodplain at all, the part that does has a terraced fluvial floodplain, which is basically strips of land of differing elevations. Only the lower strips flood consistently. This is because of the geology of the area, which has rocks of different densities that get differentially eroded by the river. The only major part of the Rhine that has a good-sized floodplain is the Rhine delta. Unfortunately, deltas aren’t as good as floodplains, because soil salinity is high near coasts, which isn’t good for most crops. > > The other problem is that the Rhine isn’t regular. It’s not like the Nile which floods once a year like clockwork, or even like the Tigris/Euphrates which have small floods every 2-3 years and a big one every 10 years. The Rhine’s usual floods are tiny and irregular, but once in a while it can produce massive floods which completely drown the countryside (in extra warm years when there’s more rainfall and too much snow melts in the mountains). This kind of flooding isn’t very good for agriculture. > > Again, I’m not saying that’s the reason why the Rhine isn’t the site for an ancient civilization on par with Mesopotamia or Egypt or IVC. I’m just saying that in the days of low tech primitive farming, it couldn’t have supported a very large population. - see also: [[deltas are often too salty for agriculture]]