The Nile drought took place in Aswan in late May and early June in Cairo. The height of the channel in this period was of 4 feet. The peasant population of the whole country, and the officials of the central and local administrations, had been mobilized for at least two months preparing the country to receive the imminent flood of the Nile: repair of dams, cleaning of canals and ditches, consolidation of the defenses of cities, villages and towns that would be in the middle of the waters, storage of food reserves for the period of the flood, etc.
Between the end of May and the beginning of June the river began to acquire volume and rise in Aswan, and towards June 20 in Cairo.
By July 10, the channel had already quadrupled in Aswan, and by the 20th of the same month the river had begun to overflow its banks and spread over the surrounding fields flooding them.
In August, the period of "high water" or "high flow" of the river began in Aswan, that is, the period of flooding in the strict sense. The country was submerged by the waters and only the dams stood out, and also the cities, villages and towns that were settled in natural or artificial hillocks emerging from the waters as islands.
The maximum height or "peak" of the flood was normally recorded at the end of August in Aswan, and at the beginning of September in Cairo. The nilometers of the First Cataract registered at this moment the height reached by the waters in about 40 feet.
The "peak" of the flood was maintained for 10-12 days, and immediately afterwards the progressive decrease in flow began. The decrement was very slow. It could even be said that in fact it did not stop diminishing until the period of rise of the channel began the following year (end of May of the following year).
During the first month (from the beginning of September to the beginning of October) the decrease was somewhat faster than in the following months. The channel of the river returned to the margins of its bed towards November.
In January, the Aswan nilometers still registered a height of 16 feet, and from then on the flow decreased at a rate of 3 feet per month.
This slow progression of the decrement ensured that the subsoil of the Valley was completely flooded and remained moist for a long time after the disappearance of the waters, but above all it caused that the deposition of silt was abundant and was spread out balanced by the fields of cultivation.
