Strange. “Upper Egypt” is the southern part of Egypt and “Lower Egypt” is the northern part. The source of the Nile (to the south of Egypt) was the key reference point to ancient Egyptians.

I searched, and Ptolemy was a Greek who lived in Egypt, not an ethnic Egyptian.

▲

chatmasta 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

The first time I realized the Nile flowed from South to North, I thought someone was pranking me. It just felt fundamentally wrong. That’s probably because when you look at a globe, the Nile seems like it should be dripping downward…

▲

YurgenJurgensen 4 days ago | parent [-]

But the Mediterranean is right there. Did you think the Mediterranean drains into some sinkhole in the middle of Africa?

	▲	chatmasta 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Well I was about eleven years old, so I’m not sure I’d even heard of the Mediterranean by then.

▲

Affric 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Upper is literally higher up with respect to distance from the Earth’s centre of gravity.

When I was 8 or 9 in school we studied Egypt and I had to know and no one could answer. Might have been one of the first things I used Google for.

	▲	pyuser583 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Isn't Earth's center of gravity at it's core? Isn't all of the Earth's surface "upper" to it's center of gravity?