Because the ancient Egyptians meticulously kept descriptive records, there is a considerable body of archaeological evidence and hieroglyphic accounts regarding ancient Egyptian tangible food history and culture. Food played an essential role in performing religious rites, mummification, coronation and wedding banquets, burial ceremonies, and particularly in preparation for entering eternal life in the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians devoted a sizable portion of Pharaonic history to food, both as nourishment and for the preparation for the mythical religious experience on the journey into eternal life.

Further, the Nile River provides a source of drinking water, fishing, and raising livestock for meat and dairy products for making halloumi and kariesh cheeses. The Egyptians mainly rely on this annual natural event to grow various staple food crops, including emmer wheat for making bread, vegetables for cooking molokhia, fruits, and legumes for making koshary. As the flood water recedes, it leaves in its wake a rich layer of fertile, volcanic dark soil deposits.

Annually, melting snow cascading from the mountains in the highlands of the south triggers the Nile River to flood on its journey northbound toward Egypt. Because of the largely arid desert landscape of Egypt, for millennia, Egyptians have been closely connected to living alongside the narrow fertile banks of the Nile River.