It's the longest river on earth.
Flowing from the heart of a continent,
it has written a story across the landscape as it forges its way north,
through mountain,
forest,
marsh
and desert.
For centuries
its waters have sustained life
in some of the harshest places on Earth.
Without it,
this corner of Africa would be only rock and dust and sand.
Civilisations have risen and fallen on its banks.
Without its gifts, the pyramids would never have been built.
Mankind has looked on this river and wondered at its mysteries -
where it comes from,
why it floods every year
and how,
flowing through the desert for thousands of kilometres it never runs dry?
Many died attempting to unravel its secrets.
In doing so they became legends themselves,
their names forever bound to the great river.
Doctor Livingstone I presume.
Journey along this river, through the ages, into the heart of Africa -
a river that has shaped history;
a river with the power to change the lives of all who encounter it...
the Nile
The Sahara.
Millions of square kilometres of scorched desert...
and yet here flows a mighty river.
Since the dawn of history this river has performed miracles.
Every year, the waters of the Nile rose and transformed the desert.
This annual flood created a fertile paradise.
Protected from the barren desert beyond,
people built their lives on the promise of this flood.
Nature's miracle built a great civilisation -
Ancient Egypt.
Fuelled by the Nile,
Egyptian society prospered.
But in truth their world was balanced on a knife edge.
One year, their abundant crops might attract plagues of biblical proportions...
While the next year they might face drought and famine.
The Nile held them hostage.
Beyond their fields lay the desert,
life and death in stark contrast.
The pharaoh had to maintain the balance of their world -
appeasing their gods and ensuring the gift of the Nile.
They struggled to understand their world,
hoping to tame its dark forces.
If they failed they faced catastrophe.
Three and a half thousand years ago
Egyptian civilisation entered a glorious stage in its story,
at its heart the city of Thebes.
This is the beginning of the 'New Kingdom' -
the golden age of great pharaohs like Rameses and Tutankhamun.
The pharaoh stands at the pinnacle of the known world.
Each attempts to outdo his predecessor
with ever more dramatic displays of power and prestige.
Throughout
this period the banks of the Nile are a vast construction site.
The province of Thebes is home to over fifty thousand people.
This is a time of prosperity.
In the small village of Djeme life is good for the farmers, fishermen,
and temple builders.
The stores overflow from the rich harvests.
There's time for leisure.
It's easy for the villagers to feel the Gods have blessed them -
all this is thanks to the miracle of the Nile.
Around them Egyptians
see a world of strange creatures which,
like them also depend on the river.
Some are admired.
Some are feared.
All are respected.
The natural world has a profound influence on the Egyptians -
they see it as a world of magic.
It provides a potent source of symbolism.
The tilapia fish is a symbol of rebirth -
and this is why...
The fish broods its young in the safety of its own mouth,
before ejecting them in a cloud of new life.
The natural and the supernatural are intimately connected.
Aware that they owe everything to their river,
they imagine the Nile lies at the heart of a cosmos composed of water.
Even the sky is made of water.
Each day across the celestial ocean sails the sun.
The sun and the Nile form a uniquely structured world.
The river running South to North,
and the sun crossing the sky from East to West,
are the twin axes that define their entire world.
They believe this precisely ordered landscape was created by the gods,
and everything within has its place in a supernatural story.
The pharaoh is not only their king
but also their direct link to the supernatural. Through prayer and rituals
he must appease the gods to keep the elements
of their watery world in balance.
The pharaoh is seen as the envoy of the
most powerful god in the Egyptian world.
Re the sun god.
Every morning Re magically comes to life,
starting ajourney across the sky in his solar boat.
As the sun rises from the water,
the villagers of Djeme wake to the calls of Hamadryas baboons.
After enduring the cold desert night
baboons climb to the top of the temples to bathe in the first rays of the sun.
Egyptians believe they are greeting Re,
and that baboons are the children of the sun god,
worshipping their father as he rises above the horizon.
They squabble for the warmest spots.
Despite their unruly behaviour
their relationship to the sun god
makes them cult animals even given sacred burials.
The labours of the day begin under the gaze of the sun god.
As Re sails higher through the sky
a creature appears from his heart:
a powerful predator -
the peregrine falcon.
Falcon is an ally of the farmers,
preying on crop-raiding pigeons.
The peregrine's commanding eye scours the fields below.
Dark patches below the bird's eyes help reduce the glare from the sun.
The falcon bursts out of the sun,
taking his prey by surprise.
The sun riding falcon is the manifestation
of one of the most important of all Egyptian gods,
the all-seeing Horus.
Even the deadliest animals have
their place in the Egyptian world.
A man killer hunts among the farms of Ancient Egypt.
The cobra is rightly feared.
Its lethal venom is injected into prey or spat up to two metres.
When threatened
the cobra rears up and swells its neck muscles -
an aggressive posture
to deter potential attackers.
The burning venom of the cobra
is seen to mimic the burning rays of the midday sun.
Egyptians transform this lethal creature into an ally:
that lethal power is re-directed
so that the cobra becomes a protector of the pharaoh.
Even in the miniscule and the bizarre
the Egyptians see reflections of the great mysteries of their world.
From the fertile banks of the Nile to the desert
all around nothing escapes their attention.
The strange life cycle of the scarab beetle
seems to embody the sun's daily journey.
Like the rising sun,
the scarab beetle appears to be born from the ground.
It then seeks out the material to complete its life cycle.
Fortunately that material is plentiful around the village.
The beetle laboriously sculpts the dung into a perfect sphere -
this is where it will lay its eggs.
It's such hard work,
piracy is rife.
The best way to avoid being robbed is to get the ball away
from the dung pile as fast as possible.
The beetle takes a direct route to safety by following a bearing taken from the sun.
It uses polarised patterns detected in the sky to keep it on track.
In the beetle's journey the Egyptians see a tiny parallel
with the journey of the sun across the sky.
The scarab's lifecycle also presents a hopeful image of continuity.
As the beetle buries the dung ball it returns to the earth.
The dung will become a subterranean larder for its young.
In three months time they will emerge.
Meanwhile the setting sun too appears to be returning to the earth.
Re is about to start ajourney through the mysterious Underworld -
the place of the dead.
It's a time of danger and uncertainty.
But Re has help on this difficult journey
from creatures of the Nile.
The Nile Catfish lives in the mud on the bottom of the river
eating detritus that filters down from above.
The long 'whiskers'
allow it to feel its way through the darkness.
The Catfish helps guide the sun back to the East to complete
its cycle of birth, death and resurrection.
The sun's journey presents the Egyptians with daily
proof of the triumph of Life over the forces of Death.
By associating himself with the sun god Re
the Pharaoh strengthens and re-affirms his power.
The sun's unlimited power and the water
from the Nile create a paradise in the heart of a desert.
Safe within their narrow green world,
the daily rhythms of life appear to continue for the moment.
But of course the world does change.
This world is in constant flux.
The Egyptians know it, and fear it.
Their paradise could so easily be lost.
The people are aware of the fragility of their world,
subject to forces they cannot control.
Now they are to face a critical time.
Despite the constancy of the sun's daily cycle,
its yearly cycle creates massive change.
The seasons brought by the sun
will transform the other axis of their world
the Nile.
The Nile is their only lifeline.
Every year they wait for the river
to burst its banks and flood.
Without it they cannot irrigate
the land and raise their crops.
Without it there would be no civilisation.
The Egyptians have already seen the river fail them,
with catastrophic consequences.
A twenty year drought destroyed the Old Kingdom
the age of the pyramids.
Much of the population had simply starved to death
when the floodwaters failed.
As the seasons progress the balance
between order and chaos is about to shift.
They look to the one person with the responsibility to maintain this balance -
the one who must ensure the Nile will flood,
the pharaoh.
He must mediate between his people and the gods.
He derives his power from his father,
the god Osiris.
Osiris had taught his people how to use the Nile to cultivate the land.
But Osiris had a brother, Seth who was jealous of his power
and murdered him by cutting him into pieces
and scattering them over the land.
But the broken body of Osiris was bound back together and restored to life.
Osiris is depicted with a green face
to reflect the fertility he brought to the country.
Egyptians think of him each time
the seasonal flood brings their land back to life.
For his crime the murderous Seth was banished to the desert,
the realm of chaos, from where
he forever threatens to return and destroy the Egyptian world
with plague, drought and famine.
The future of Egypt rests on the shoulders of the pharaoh.
He must keep Seth's chaos at bay.
The people of Egypt look to him to protect them.
If he fails them now and cannot ensure the flood
they will face the same catastrophe that befell the Old Kingdom.
Each summer his kingship is tested.
It's mid June.
Egypt starts to heat up.
The threat to the cherished continuity
and consistency of the villagers' lives begins.
The desert sands advance, threatening to extinguish the river.
Without the Nile the Egyptian world will cease.
Water is becoming an ever more precious commodity.
Competition for the Nile's dwindling pools becomes intense.
Pushed to the limits of endurance,
male hippos become extremely dangerous
as they fight over their diminishing territory.
Often these bouts
are fought to the death.
The Nile's paradise is disappearing.
Caught up in the fighting, female hippos aggressively defend their young.
The Egyptians respect their bravery
and worship them in the form of Tauert,
the goddess of young mothers.
As the temperature rises
the pressure mounts on the pharaoh.
But one of the Nile's creatures
actually welcomes the pitiless heat.
Crocodiles crave the heat of the sun to maintain their own body temperature.
This brutal season presents little challenge to them!
The river is becoming a very dangerous place to be.
There is a stench of death.
A hippo carcass draws crocodiles from miles around.
Some are over four metres long.
Even for crocodiles it is not easy to bite through the thick hide,
but they've developed a unique way of feeding.
Spinning enables them to twist off chunks of flesh.
They can demolish anything.
The ability of crocodiles to thrive
while others suffer inspires awe in the Egyptians.
They are honoured in special temples,
worshipped as the god Sobek.
While they are alive they are pampered.
When they die, they are embalmed
and buried in sacred tombs.
As the ground bakes
and the Nile dwindles,
the Egyptians pray for the return of the flood.
An entire civilisation holds its breath.
The pharaoh's position is now precarious.
He must prove he can influence the gods.
His people demand that he delivers the flood.
They know the Nile has risen before to replenish their world,
and they yearn for its arrival again
but has the pharaoh been able to appease the gods this year?
All along the valley,
people are looking to nature for signs of hope.
Then, at last, one appears.
Flocks of sacred ibis arrive from the south.
Egyptians have learned that the flood will surely follow.
Despite its critical importance Egyptians
don't understand the nature of the flood.
They believe the Nile bubbles up far to the south
from the depths of an underground sea.
Over a few weeks the water level rises by nearly ten metres.
The sun-baked land is transformed
into a flooded plain covering thousands of square kilometres.
Although welcome,
the arrival of this much water is potentially dangerous.
To tame the water
the Pharaoh oversees dam building
and irrigation to channel it safely over the land.
The Pharaoh has not failed his people.
The rebirth of the Nile marks the Egyptian New Year.
As heralds of the flood,
the sacred ibis that now populate the river are held in high esteem.
As they probe for snails they resemble scribes dipping pens into ink
so are also credited with the power of knowledge.
But in reality they are important for a more practical reason:
evidence from autopsies on mummies has shown
that Egyptians suffered from bilharzia, a liver parasite carried by water snails.
As the ibis eat the snails they make pools safe for the villagers to bathe.
The sacred ibis symbolise the god Thoth,
god of wisdom and master of time.
Before long Thoth will play a pivotal role in the Pharaoh's destiny.
The rising waters bring the Nile valley back to life.
It becomes a refuge in the heart of the desert,
attracting thousands of different birds on their migration across Africa.
As the flood reaches its height in late summer,
the parched swamps
of papyrus at the margins of the Nile are rejuvenated.
These swamps are full of creatures attracted by an abundance of fish.
Fishing is big business
for the villagers of Djeme
fish are the currency by which even temple builders are paid.
The secret of the Nile's gift is not the water itself,
but the load it has carried into Egypt...
...millions of tonnes of rich silt.
When the waters begin to recede in the autumn,
the black silt that remains is so rich
that it appears to create life spontaneously.
Frogs and toads seem to born directly from the black mud.
Frog amulets are given as gifts to celebrate the Egyptian New year,
symbols of the resurrection of the land.
This is the busiest time of the year for the farmers.
The formless mud is transformed into an ordered grid of fields.
The Nile's gifts are harnessed.
Now, the myth of Osiris and his jealous
brother Seth will be played out...
the sowing of the new crops is a reminder of Osiris -
murdered and 'buried' in the soil.
The Nile's water irrigates the silt-rich land it has created,
and over the next few months
these perfect growing conditions
fulfil the river's promise to restore life.
As the crops grow,
Osiris rises again from the dead.
When the Nile keeps its promise the desert is transformed
and Egypt becomes a paradise once more.
The forces of order and chaos are perfectly in balance.
But for how long?
Now is the spring harvest.
The crops are abundant but even this brings a new danger.
The curse of Seth might yet throw their world into chaos.
This year,
the villages will face a new threat,
one they are powerless to avert.
When locust populations reach a critical density,
they radically alter their behaviour -
massing into terrifying swarms that devour everything in their path.
The swarms appear from nowhere, swept along by desert winds.
One square kilometre can contain fifty million locusts.
A swarm advances at four metres every second.
Locusts destroy not only crops,
but also food stores.
Their droppings contaminate what little food they leave behind.
Those who eat it are poisoned.
The balance of Egypt is broken.
The plague has decimated the population.
Cemeteries overflow with the dead.
The stench of death attracts scavengers.
But even in such desperate times,
the people seek signs of hope.
Their imagination transforms the wild dogs and jackals
that scavenge around the cemeteries into Anubis,
a God who escorts the souls of the dead into the underworld.
Following the devastation by the locust plague
the pharaoh must take control of the crisis.
He must organise the redistribution of the nation's reserves
from other parts of his kingdom.
The villagers of Djeme can now start to rebuild their lives.
But just as order returns to their world,
terrible news arrives from the city of Thebes.
The Pharaoh, the man they believe to be a God,
proves to be as mortal as themselves.
The Pharaoh is dead.
Not only does he leave a political vacuum,
but now there is no-one to intercede with the gods.
The Egyptian's ordered world is in danger
of descending into permanent chaos.
For the Egyptians, death is not the end.
They believe that as long as the body is intact,
the spirit can be kept alive.
The pharaoh is prepared for mummification:
The organs are removed and stored in canopic jars -
All except for the heart,
upon which is placed a scarab amulet.
This will be crucially important later.
The body is dried out with salt before being wrapped
in hundreds of metres of bandages.
Even in death,
the pharaoh's responsibility to his people is not over.
But it will take seventy days until he is ready to perform
the most important test of his kingship
and deliver them from chaos.
Summer is approaching,
and they face the threat of drought once more.
Without their pharaoh the villagers fear for their future.
As the season of hardship intensifies
Egyptian vultures are drawn closer
to the shrinking river in the hope of finding a meal.
A column of vultures riding the thermal currents is a sign of death.
The villagers cattle are dying.
A vulture's hooked bill cuts easily into the hide,
and its bald head and neck saves prolonged feather-cleaning.
It uses its bulk and outstretched wings to try and dominate the carcass.
It's midsummer.
The Nile is now so low it's possible to walk across it.
The flood is very late.
The words of an ancient prophesy are becoming a reality:
'What will become of this land?...
The river of Egypt is dry...
Let me show you the land in turmoil'.
All the villagers can do now is wait.
In the midst of drought,
the entire kingdom faces catastrophe.
Have the gods deserted their world?
At last, the moment has come:
the pharaoh is ready for his final journey.
On the day of the his burial
an extraordinary ceremony is played out in
secrecy through the Valley of the Kings.
Food from the dwindling reserves becomes sacred offerings.
The pharaoh's spirit must be nourished.
Inside the coffin,
his body has been preserved
and bound together in imitation of his father Osiris.
The mummy and the provisions for his final journey
are carried to the tomb -
carved fifty metres inside the mountain.
As the sun dies on the horizon,
the Pharaoh enters the underworld.
The mummy is left in the tomb,
the entrance sealed
and hidden for eternity.
Their fate is in the hands of the dead pharaoh.
Can the chaos of Seth be lifted?
Will the flood come?
The Pharaoh is now traveling through the underworld,
a distorted reflection of the Nile valley.
Here he encounters familiar Nile creatures again.
This time they play a pivotal role
in Egypt's destiny.
The Pharaoh finds himself in the presence of the gods.
This is the Hall of Judgement.
It's time for the ultimate test
the weighing of the heart.
The pharaoh's heart is to be weighed against a feather -
symbol of order and justice -
principles by which the Pharaoh should have ruled his people.
The jackal-headed god Anubis
places the heart on the scales.
The ibis-headed god Thoth stands by to record the result.
The ceremony is overseen by Osiris.
If the Pharaoh's heart is too heavy with sin
it faces annihilation by the Devourer,
a crocodile-headed monster.
The Egyptian world will be doomed to remain in chaos.
The scarab amulet that was placed on the pharaoh's chest
ensures his heart will not betray him.
'I have not committed crimes against my people...
I have not done what the gods hate...
I have not obstructed water when it should run... '
At last the Nile rises again,
and its miracle is performed once more.
The valley is revitalised.
Egyptians have proof the scales have balanced.
The pharaoh has earned his place alongside the gods.
From here he can help maintain the balance of their world
and keep chaos at bay.
The Ancient Egyptians developed a sophisticated culture.
Where the world of the natural
and the supernatural were intimately bound together.
Never before or since has there been such a close bond with the Natural world.
The age of the Pharaohs prospered for over three thousand years.
Their civilisation would inspire all those that followed.
But for all that the Egyptians never understood
the truth behind the miracle
that provided them with life.
The gifts of a great river - The Nile.
Next Week.
Why do the Nile's waters rise and flood each year?
Where does its cargo of fertile soil come from?
Journey far upstream,
to swamps and mountains in the heart of Africa.
Witness the creation of a force powerful
enough to bring life to a desert four thousand kilometres away.