Hap(i)/Hapy - "Runner" Hapi is the body of the River Nile itself, the world's longest waterway, without which the Two Lands would cease to exist. Hapi is venerated both as the physical sacred waters of the river and symbologically as the concept of life and fertility, reenacted every day in the land along the "Old Man River's" body. Kemetics saw in their precarious existence between mountains and deserts a miracle of life, bestowed upon them by the blessings of Hapi, Who inundated them each winter and provided the Black Land of Wesir which secured the harvest. Hapi could be capricious, however; no flood or too much flood meant disaster, either from famine or from inability to run from His rushing force. Since the erection of the High Dam at Aswan in the latter part of this century, Hapi's influence is not felt in Egypt as strongly as it was in antiquity - but the Nile still remains the central feature of Egyptian culture and spirituality - Copts, Nubians and Muslims still celebrate holy days with river cruises, boat processions and water blessings.