Why were rivers so important in all the earliest civilizations? Why did the Nile attract particular attention

 These early civilizations were actually considered "river civilization". Transportation, agriculture, trade, and tribal relations depended on river systems. The flooding of the Nile River is the focus of this story. The ancient Egyptians relied on the predictable flooding of the Nile to plant crops. The Nile's floods also protected tribes from invasion to the South of them.