Alchemy and Egypt

It is significant that the word 'alchemy' ... derives from the Arabic al kimiya, which almost certainly comes, via the Greek chemeia, from the old name for the Nile Delta in Egypt, khem, which means 'black earth': the deeply fertile, life-giving soil, dark silt from the Nile, amidst the arid desert.

Barrett, David V., A Brief History of Secret Societies, Philadelphia: Running Press, 2007, p. 14.