Although the Nile river is just a river, to the ancient egyptians the Nile river is a very big deal in egypt, it helped them for transportation, like boats their crops, their crops would get watery and the water also makes fertile soil which again helps the food, every year the  nile river flooded, it was also a source of telling when it was a new year, unlike us they didn't have calendars saying the date, moth or year instead they relied on the floods to know when a new year was coming. Water was a major thing with the Nile river the source of water is limited in deserts like egypt so the Nile river was a perfect place for them to get water from, it was the ancient egyptians main water source. There is a reason as for why ancient egyptians didn't build in the Nile Delta, this reason comes back to the annual flooding, if the egyptians had of built and lived right at the delta when the floods came their houses could of been ruined, the soil was not solid enough for building. The Nile river did many things to shape ancient egypt.