The Nile

A journey down river from Aswan to Cairo – through time, place and history.
Thorough, erudite and enthusiasticSunday Times
His take on ancient and colonial history is impeccable . . . CompellingObserver
Brilliant . . . Dexterously done and rich in detailDaily Telegraph

From Herodotuss day to the present political upheavals, the steady flow of the Nile has been Egypts heartbeat. It has shaped its geography, controlled its economy and moulded its civilisation. The same stretch of water which conveyed Pharaonic battleships, Ptolemaic grain ships, Roman troop-carriers and Victorian steamers today continues much as it has for millennia.

At this critical juncture in the countrys history, renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes us on a journey along the Nile, starting from Lake Victoria in the south and traveling north through Egypts storied landscapes. We pass from Cataract to Cataract, by the Aswan Dam and into the fertile delta. Egypt reveals itself as a living palimpsest, with every era leaving its mark. From the ancient Nilometer on Elephantine Island, which has measured the Niles floodwaters since the time of the Pharaohs to predict agricultural yields, to the towering wonders of Giza scarred by nineteenth-century archaeologists and Cairos relentless urban sprawl, the countrys past and present intertwine. In Egypts earliest art – prehistoric fish-trap carvings on cliffs – and the modern struggles of the Arab Spring fought on Cairos bridges, the Nile serves as our guide to understanding this unique, chaotic, vibrant, conservative and rapidly evolving land.