My...How I enjoyed reading this. You summed it up nicely. There is something spiritual about the river. My own experiences of having been working on the Colorado River for two and a half decades on a daily basis, you get to see how personal it all is. Your comments about Dams and the infrastructure was spot on as well.
You mention about Temples. Most people are not aware that in ancient Egypt that the high priests measured the river levels with a structure called a Nilometer. Todays equivalent being a stilling well at a Dam or Stream Gage (we call them Gages, not Gauges in the trade). In some cases Nilometers were part of a Temple. I always thought that it was ironic that my own job of measuring the river was handled by the elite in earlier times but understand the spirituality aspect of it.
I'll give you an example. The Stilling Well that measures Lake Mead at Hoover Dam can be compared to the Nilometer in several ways. The Nilometer was used to predict how well the upcoming growing season would be by the number of Cubits measuring the depth of the Nile before it traversed into the Delta. If the reading was low, bad times ahead. Same with the Lake Mead Stilling Well. The Lake Mead Stilling Well is an interesting place which few have seen. It resides in the center of the Dam. It straddles the Nevada/Arizona state border and physically is in two different time zones. You access it through a tunnel in the Dam (we call them Galleries) and you have to walk up a set of concrete stairs to enter it. You actually get the feeling that you're ascending to an Alter. It's an eerie place as you can peer down the well into nothingness due to the lower levels of the lake, You also hear voices in the background while there. It's not the whispers of those ancient Egyptian Priests nor the moans of the unfortunate workers encased in the concrete (another myth) but the ramblings of tourists a few feet above echoing down a drain pipe.
Just another day working on the river. It was noble work...
My...How I enjoyed reading this. You summed it up nicely. There is something spiritual about the river. My own experiences of having been working on the Colorado River for two and a half decades on a daily basis, you get to see how personal it all is. Your comments about Dams and the infrastructure was spot on as well.
You mention about Temples. Most people are not aware that in ancient Egypt that the high priests measured the river levels with a structure called a Nilometer. Todays equivalent being a stilling well at a Dam or Stream Gage (we call them Gages, not Gauges in the trade). In some cases Nilometers were part of a Temple. I always thought that it was ironic that my own job of measuring the river was handled by the elite in earlier times but understand the spirituality aspect of it.
I'll give you an example. The Stilling Well that measures Lake Mead at Hoover Dam can be compared to the Nilometer in several ways. The Nilometer was used to predict how well the upcoming growing season would be by the number of Cubits measuring the depth of the Nile before it traversed into the Delta. If the reading was low, bad times ahead. Same with the Lake Mead Stilling Well. The Lake Mead Stilling Well is an interesting place which few have seen. It resides in the center of the Dam. It straddles the Nevada/Arizona state border and physically is in two different time zones. You access it through a tunnel in the Dam (we call them Galleries) and you have to walk up a set of concrete stairs to enter it. You actually get the feeling that you're ascending to an Alter. It's an eerie place as you can peer down the well into nothingness due to the lower levels of the lake, You also hear voices in the background while there. It's not the whispers of those ancient Egyptian Priests nor the moans of the unfortunate workers encased in the concrete (another myth) but the ramblings of tourists a few feet above echoing down a drain pipe.
Just another day working on the river. It was noble work...
Thanks Dave for sharing this! Fascinating background.