People have lived along the banks of the River Nile
since the very beginning of human history.
In their struggle for survival
these early settlers faced a primeval world
that was unpredictable and mysterious.
Flowing 4.000 miles
from the heart of Africa to the Mediterranean sea
the River Nile has shaped the lives
and beliefs of many different races.
Echoes of the ancient ways
are still to be found in the highlands of Ethiopia
in the vast swamplands of Sudan
and in the fields of Egypt
The principal religions are Islam and Christianity
but both have borrowed and upon earlier beliefs.
It was here in Egypt more than 3.000 years before Christ
that the Nile gave rise to the world's first great civilization.
The genius of the Egyptian is still seen today
and their ideas continue tom inform our imagination.
Egypt was the birthplace of western man
Here he planted crops for the first time
and turned the Nile into a Garden of Eden.
The ancient Egyptians devised the first written language
carved it into stone
and celebrated their beliefs in monuments
that would endure forever.
Above all, they created a religion
in which man and nature would exist in harmony
for all eternity.
In his quest to hares the forces of nature
man made nature his God
Out of the depths of pre-history
Egyptian civilization rose suddenly
and apparently out nothing.
It had taken a million years
for man to go from primitive nomad to crop farmer
but just a few thousand to turn villages great cities
Egyptians still build with mud bricks
and they make the bricks with the same wooden tools
the Ancients used.
They continue to make a living from the land
irrigating their fields with water drawn from the Nile.
Nearly 5.000 years ago
the great pyramids began to rise above the flood plain.
But long before that strips of riverside marsh
had been transformed into productive farmland
Agriculture made wealth
wealth made Egyptian civilization.
These people were the pioneers of modern agriculture
They collected wild grasses from the river bank
and harvested the cereals we know today.
If an Ancient Egyptian were to stumble into this village
much would be familiar to him.
Virtually everyone is involved in farming still
the women as much as the men.
Domestic duties remain the same:
Women still bake in clay ovens
Even their games date from Pharaohnic times.
Villages beside the Nile
are no longer isolated from the outside world
Farmers grow crops which they export to Europe
and many villagers travel to the cities
and work beyond.
Cairo, capital of modern Egypt
was founded a thousand years ago
by a General who called it
Al Qahira the city Victorious.
Its location has always been important
The pyramids were built nearby
and Cairo straddles the Nile at the point
where the river broadens out into the delta.
Fifteen million live here
in Africa's most densely populated city
Even so, most people are emotionally tied
to the traditions of the countryside.
Adel El Abd is one.
A merchant and landowner
he spends most of his time of his farm in the delta.
Most of my family live in Cairo
My brothers are engineers doctors and so on.
But I always wanted to be a farmer since I was a young lad
I wanted to be farmer
and I think I accomplished what wanted.
The Nile delta is not very vast
but it is the most fertile soil in Egypt
in the past, it was
full of lakes full of papyrus
and our ancestors
and grandfathers reclaimed it
and made it the most fertile piece of land I think on Earth.
So fertile is the soil here
that anyone who owns just a few acres
can earn a decent living.
Adel's family owns 50 acres
and he farms it with his manager Mohammed
Their families have been working together
since their grandfathers drained the land
and first planted crops.
Next door to Adel's farm
local villagers grow enough rice for their own needs.
The reliance on communal labor to harvest crops
recalls far earlier times.
It was the surplus of grain
that originally liberated the Ancient Egyptians
from subsistence farming
and paved the way for Pharaohnic civilization.
The Egyptians were among the most spectacular builders
of all time
and the pyramids of Giza
the largest stone structures ever built.
There's a popular myth
that the monuments of the pharaohs
were built by slaves.
But the truth is
that the hard labor was work of off-season farmers
driven from the land by the annual floods
and eager to earn a living during the three months
when their fields lay underwater.
What made all this possible was the mud of the Nile.
This black earth is actually what made this Egypt
and what made this farm most prosperous
this black earth is the magic of Egypt
they say Egypt is the gift of Nile.
Look at the Sediments
full of iron zinc and manganese
everything that any plant can need
It's a miracle The Nile every year brings us a miracle.
It's a miracle that has its origins 4.000 miles upstream
at the start of the longest river in the world.
In fact there are two Niles
The blue Nile rises in the highlands of Ethiopia
and the white Nile above lake Victoria in central Africa.
The ancient Egyptians attributed the annual floods
to the God Hapi.
Hail to you Hapi!
Sprung from the earth.
Come to Nourish Egypt.
Who floods the fields that Ra has made
to nourish all who thirst.
While the Blue Nile provided the great bulk of mud and water
that reached Egypt
the white Nile yielded up the gift of Hapi
the rice soup of nutrients
that made Egypt's soil so fertile.
Deep in tropical Africa
the Nile valley appears precisely
as it must have done in Egypt
at the time of the first pharaohs.
Here the Nile is rich in wildlife
and we know from early art
that most of the creatures we see in these swamps
were familiar to the ancient Egyptians.
A combination of climatic change
and hunting pressure drove many animals
out of Egypt thousands of years ago.
One of the first casualties was the elephant
some time during the earliest dynasties
nearly 5000 years ago
the elephant, the giraffe and the rhinoceros
all disappeared from Egypt.
But even as the elephant was in retreat
Egyptians were forging a religion out of nature.
The hippopotamus surprisingly
was one of many creatures they made into a god.
Voluptuous and motherly
the female came to represent Taweret
goddess of childbirth.
But the hippo was also a scourge
who raided fields at night
The male became Seth god of chaos.
The climate of Ancient Egypt was far wetter than today
Away from the Nile
the savanna supported big cats and herds.
Because of its ability to see beyond the horizon
the giraffe came to symbolize foresight to the Egyptians.
Trying to cope with
and understand a world filled with animals
that both supported and preyed on mankind
the ancients evolved a mythology
and religion that tried to make sense of it all.
Man's yearning to impose order on the natural world
can be seen on this 5.000 year old flint knife
its ivory handle carved with the creatures that animated
his world and his dreams.
Surviving knife handles depict more than 40 species
to catalogue the world in this way meant to control it
But one animal dominated man's imagination.
To the early Egyptians the lion was king...
and the king was lion
Carvings from 3.500 BC show the king as a ferocious lion
devouring his enemies.
Lassos spears traps and bow and arrow were all part of an
increasingly sophisticated armory.
Not that this made the world free of danger
The African buffalo probably killed as many people
as the big cats.
As a result the buffalo was a symbol of aggressive
naked power.
That's how king Narmer the first pharaoh
is depicted on a ceremonial carving
The narrative tells
of the emergence of the world's first nation state
presiding over it is a godlike creature
part cow part buffalo.
Narmer king of upper Egypt is a buffalo
crushing the walls of a recalcitrant delta city
and trampling the enemy under-foot.
This is one of the most important documents
in Egyptian history
It proclaims kingship as form of government...
and in the use of animal symbols and hieroglyphs
it establishes a code of expression
which will last for three and a half thousand years.
House the falcon god and another symbol for the king
presides over the papyrus lands of the captured delta.
The unification of upper and Lower Egypt into a state
that's lasted till today is celebrated by the
inter-twining heads of two mythic beasts.
The ascent of Egypt
from a collection of nomadic herders into a settled kingdom
was the direct result of climate and geography.
Here was a land of perpetual sunshine and rich soil
and the Egyptians did their utmost
to turn it into an earthly paradise.
Not that the spoils were evenly shared
A few led lives of luxury
but most Egyptians were grindingly poor.
All the same even the poor would benefit from date palms
a source of sugar wine and medication since early times.
Dates figs doum palms and many other fruit trees
lined the riverbank some were native to Egypt
many others were brought from distant lands.
The Nile provided an abundance of food Fish were plentiful
and the marshes teemed with duck and geese.
As if this weren't enough
traders from the rest of the continent
brought a constant supply of exotic goods down the Nile
gold ivory ebony incense and furs from tropical Africa.
It was a land of plenty
That it should prosper came as naturally
as these sugary dates from the trees.
Sometimes it feels as though nothing has changed.
For example the Notta is still the decisive date for packing
harvesting ripening the fruits etc which was a pharaohonic
calendar
And the Notta actually is the first sign of arrival
of the flood-waters to Egypt Up to now the Egyptian farmer
considered the date a sacred date.
It was the sacred lbis that heralded the life-giving floods
Forced downstream by the advancing eater they arrived
at the height of summer.
Farmers saw these birds as allies
They ate the locusts that ravaged their crops
They also fed on exposed crocodile eggs.
With its beak dipping into the earth
like a scribe's brush into black ink
the lbis came to symbolize knowledge.
And knowledge to most Ancient Egyptians
meant a dependable foretelling of the waters return.
All Egypt waited
in anticipation of an infusion from this artery of life.
2000 miles up-river from the Nile Delta...
the Ethiopian Highlands.
Over millions of years the high plateau has been eroded away
and washed downstream to become the rice mud
of the Nile valley.
Every spring the monsoon rains saturate the land
and swell the rivers.
The mud-laden water is now at its highest level
Tissisat Falls of the head of the Blue Nile
is in full flood.
Four fifths of the water that flows into Egypt comes from here.
Eventually the muddy water of the Blue Nile
joins the nutrient-rich waters of the white Nile
Together they flow into Egypt
and the river slows to a more leisurely pace
depositing its silt along the way.
Today the river is controlled by a series of dams
and most mud settles out before entering Egypt
leaving the water blue.
Until a hundred years ago
the floods at their heights filled the entire valley
forcing wildlife and people onto higher ground.
Every year the God Hapi ensured the bounty
covering the entire floodplain
willing it once again into life.
After a few months the waters receded
leaving a feast in their wake.
Great naturalists that they were
the Egyptians recorded what they saw in minute detail.
In the early tomb paintings at Meidum
a procession of white-fronted and red-breasted geese
brought the marshlands to life.
But no creature was better equipped to harvest the marshes
than the sacred lbis.
Its long curved bill probed deep into the mud
catching the most elusive of pray.
Its cleverness became enshrined in Thoth
god of wisdom.
The bird still lives on the walls of countless temples
guiding the brushstrokes of scribe.
Here he presides at the Tree of Life
painting the name of a pharaoh onto a leaf
Until he does so the pharaoh does not exist.
Such is the power of words.
The great surprise of Egyptian art
is the almost scientific attention to detail.
The Hoppoe its crest on display
The purple Gallinule skulking in the lilies.
The pied kingfisher hovering above the river.
Far from being stylized and abstract
Egyptian is often infused with fleeting moments of nature.
The quest was to capture nature in such a dependable way
that the creatures would accompany the dead
into the afterlife.
Nowhere were the floods more eagerly awaited than at Aswan.
Here Egyptians first measured the annual rise of the river
using a device called a Nilometer.
In an ideal year the flood rise 27 feet above its winter level
3 feet higher and the water destroys villages
3 feet lower and people starve.
Until the dams were built
this gauge in modern Arabic was used to measure the floods.
Alongside it a much older measure from pharaohonic times.
Measuring water is one thing
being clever with it is quite another
the first irrigation canals were built before the pharaohs...
but the invention of the shaduf revolutionized farming.
With its bucket at one end and mud weight at the other
the shaduf led to a dramatic increase in irrigated land.
Around 300 B C Greek invaders introduced the saqia
an animal-driven water-wheel
capable of lifting a continuous flow.
Better management of water meant that more and more land
could be brought under the plough.
So efficient are these ancient lifting devices that
their design has not changed for two thousand years.
The only difference with Adel's water-wheel is that it is driven
by a diesel engine rather than ox power.
It was introduced in Egypt 2,000 years ago by the Romans
and it is still an incredible piece of equipment for irrigation
it gets the water from low-levels raises it up
to any level you want.
Once every twelve years Adel's water-wheel must be replaced
it's almost identical to its Roman original.
The link between technology and economics is clear
New farming systems worked so well
that the Romans had to build scores of granaries
to hold the increased harvest.
Devices such as these
helped them turn Egypt into the bread basket of the Empire
so vast were the surpluses of grain
that taxes in Rome could be reduced by two thirds.
Egypt-the gift of the Nile became the lifeline of Rome.
The Egyptians built their civilization
with the wealth generated by grain.
In addition to barley they grew several other cereals
they used to make bread and beer.
The land grew more than just food
Flax was harvested and woven into fine
that made light airy garments.
But for the pharaohs what mattered most
was the harvest of grain.
Each year an army of bureaucrats measured the farmers fields
So dependable and constant was the harvest
that a simple taxation system was devised
it linked the size of each field
to the height of the annual flood measured at the Nilometer
This gave the "over-seers of the fields"
an estimate of what should be taxed.
Farmers also paid tax on their cattle
carved models from an aristocrat's tomb
depict a cattle count on a large estate
Farmers drive their herds past the beady eyes
of the tax inspector.
Stamping mud into potter's clay
is one of the oldest activities in Egypt.
It's impossible to overstate
the importance of mud to the Nile story
it's Agriculture but it's also History.
As long ago as 5.000 B C
mud was molded into pots
that were used to store and transport grain oil and wine.
Today Egyptians still put pots to a whole variety of uses
and most villages have their own potter.
Much of what we know of pre-pharaohonic times
come from pottery unearthed in burial sites
The shapes glazes and illustrations they used
help us to date events in Ancient Egypt very precisely.
Five thousand years ago pots like this
were filled with provisions that accompanied the dead
into the Afterlife
They were carefully decorated with animals and gods.
One of the earliest images is woman as cow goddess
arms raised like cattle horns.
The Ancoli cattle of the Upper Nile
closely resemble the ones associated with the cow-goddess.
The idea of the divine cow was confined to the Nile valley
but it has persisted here till the present day.
Midway between the highlands of Ethiopia and Lake Victoria
a vast papyrus swamp straddles the white Nile
Arab traders called it the Sud - or the "obstacle".
This is the largest swamp on earth
and it forms an almost impenetrable barrier
between tropical Africa and Egypt.
The Sud is home to the Nuer
a people whose lives are entirely devoted to cattle.
Without the Nuer cattle could not survive here
and without cattle neither could Nuer.
Anuk's routine seldom alters and at dawn each day
she lights day she lights a fire of cattle dung.
Nuer have no permanent home
when the Nile floods
they retreat with their cattle to higher ground
when the waters recede
they move back to the heart of the swamps.
Their lives like those of the Ancient Egyptians
ebb and flow with the rhythms of the Nile.
The Nuer could scarcely have chosen a harsher place to live.
The crocodiles here are killers
but the Nuer's main enemies are insects
The Sud is infested with the malaria mosquito and tsetse fly.
Insects dictate the morning duties of the Nuer women.
We put the ash on the cows and which keeps the tsetse fly away
The smoke also drives them off.
Once we've milked the cows they go off to graze
Then we collect dung and dry it to make fires.
Cattle supply almost all the material needs of the Nuer.
Dried dung is used for cooking
it's ash is even used to make toothpaste
The Nuer couldn't possibly live closer to their cows.
There must have been this same intimacy with animals
in Ancient Egypt.
Nuer women take care of everything to do with growing
and preparing grain
Millet and wheat are stable foods here
just as they were in pharaohonic times.
This has been women's work since time immemorial
and it's as tough a job today as it was then.
Women also take charge of all the diary work.
When the cows come in from grazing
it's the women's role
to milk them and turn the milk into butter.
From a very early age girls are taught how to milk
A striking tenderness exists between a Nuer girl and her cows
Nothing has changed
Since Egyptian times
Calves have been tethered to their mother's front legs.
The calabash remains the ideal receptacle for milk.
To cattle-loving people cows have real feelings
They even recognize the sadness a cow feels
at having to give up some of the milk
that nature intended for its calf.
Cattle also dominate
the thoughts and conversations of Nuer boys.
When they reach manhood
cows will provide them with a currency to acquire a bride.
In Nuer society social standing is a reflection of the number
of cows you own.
Among the Nuer the status of cattle is pre-ordained by God
as the tribal elder Gatch tells his people.
Both man and cow needed each other
After man was created he was told to go out into the world
and the cow was told to follow him
God gave the orders.
He is the creator
He told us that we mustn't kill cows
as they are his creation
You can kill them only if you're starving.
In late morning
Nuer boys accompany the herds out to pasture
They will spend the day with them
watching them
talking to them
treating them as equals.
On sacred occasions The village elders say
it's entirely proper to offer an animal
Cows are sacrificed at weddings
or when young men go into the bush
on a journey of initiation.
The slaughter of a cow is never lightly undertaken
The Nuer always explain to God why they are killing an animal
and they are careful to tell each animal
just why it must be sacrificed.
The Egyptian's intense love of cattle
was captured in their language
Human beings were referred to as cattle of the sun-god.
The cow goddess Hathor was the symbolic mother of the pharaoh
Egypt's leaders were suckled on her divine milk
and she protected both the pharaohs
and their royal cemeteries beside the Nile.
When the Greek arrived
they immediately recognized Hathor
as their own Aphrodite.
Later among the Romans
she became Venus
and temples continued to be built in her honor.
Egyptians often made offerings to Hathor
and worshipped her in many guises.
They worshipped the cow-goddess long before the first pharaoh
and continued to worship her long after the last.
In most places today
cattle are straightforward providers of milk and meat
Nothing divine about them
Egyptians however are still an intensely religious people
Hathor is no longer an influence
but the Nile continues to govern their spiritual values.
In the old city of Cairo there's a mosque on almost every corner.
For the last thousand years Cairo has been a great centre
of Islamic culture and scholarship.
There are over 50 million Muslims in Egypt today
but there is also a sizable population
of some 7 million Christians
Most are members of the Coptic church.
Before the Islamic conquest of the seventh century
most Egyptians were Coptic Christians.
The church's patriarch pope Shonuda
believes that some Coptic ideas
are rooted in the oldest traditions.
Till now
we pray in our churches for the Nile
That God may raise its water to its measure
not to be more not to be less.
Ancient Egyptians believed in
a universe animated by gods and men
protected by the arching form of the sky goddess Nut
they were shielded from the of chaos beyond.
Below on the Nile valley floor the earth god Geb
They discovered this power in the sun
and the water of the Nile
so they worshipped the river Nile and the sun.
The sun was the supreme Deity
the source of life for gods and men.
Every dawn was a re-enactment of the original moment of creation
when all deferred to the sun as it journeyed into the heavens.
Above the river
on the valley cliffs
barking baboons herald the new day.
Ancient Egyptians may have noticed that
the hierarchy of the baboon troop
mirrored their own society
with the dominant male assuming the role of pharaoh
and select females that of the royal harem.
The pre-eminence of the sun is portrayed on the walls
of countless tombs.
The sun is held aloft by the falcon god Hours.
A baboon raises his hands in adoration.
The lion is a key solar creature
often portrayed as the protector of the sun.
Men and women bow down with the animals around them.
All acknowledge the life-giving power of the sun.
On temples baboons stand at attention in its honor.
The crocodile Sobek supports the sun
and in turn
is protected by the open wings of Horus the falcon god.
At dawn
vultures spread their wings to soak up the sun's heat
and prepare themselves for flight.
To the Egyptians this spreading of wings
was an act of prayer.
All life in the valley took place
beneath the protective wings of the goddess Nekhbet.
The vulture entered the hieroglyphic language
as the word "Mut" which means "Mother".
Crocodiles were once found along the whole length of the Nile
Over 20 feet in length they were stealthy killers.
With gaping mouths they paid their dues to the sun
but this posture
was also perceived as a symbol of aggression
Because of this
crocodiles were associated with Seth
the god of chaos an enemy of Horus.
Crocodiles were also accorded high status
as protectors of the pharaoh
Holding the sign of life the crocodile god Sobek
stands as defender of the great pharaoh Amen Hotep.
Images of nature also infuse
every aspect of temple architecture.
Tein pylons represent the high cliffs
that enclose the Nile valley.
The river between these stylized cliffs
becomes the means of entry into the inner spiritual world.
Temples glorify the animals of the river
transforming them into Gods.
But nature was mimicked as well as idolized
These temple columns suggest a stand of papyrus reeds.
No creature is too insignificant
Everything under the sun
has a place in this religion... and its art.
Egyptian architecture expresses the underlying patterns of life
the geometry of growth and fruition.
Seed pods and fresh shoots of new growth
are signs of nature's renewal.
Presiding over all life on the river was Osiris
the green-faced god of fertility.
With his shepherd's crook and grain flail
Osiris answered the prayers of both herdsmen and farmers.
Thou art the Nile
said the pharaoh Ramses in his hymn to Osiris.
God and men live from thy outflow.
In ancient times the Nile broke into five separate rivers
when it entered the delta and between the rivers
lay great expanses of papyrus swamp.
So important was the papyrus that it became an emblem
of lower Egypt.
Here near the source of the Blue Nile
the task of gathering papyrus is fraught with danger.
As they approach in their flimsy papyrus canoes
the men make as much noise as possible
to scare away hippos crocodiles and snakes.
Papyrus is a marsh-reed that grows to a height of 15 feet
its stalks are riddled with air chambers and this makes it unusually
buoyant and ideal for boats.
In Ancient Egypt papyrus meant far more than transport
it was the vehicle for the transmission of language
and ideas.
By beating papyrus into flat strips
and pressing them together Egyptians made the first paper.
The dangers of the river were often recorded with wry humor.
The Egyptians made the earliest comic strips
and scrolls could stretch over a hundred feet long.
In Egypt the scribe was part-bureaucrat part-priest
his work allowed a great nation to be unified.
He chronicled its history preserved its myths
and ensured government efficiency.
For the pharaoh information was power.
What gave the scribe his power was the language of hieroglyphs.
The hieroglyphic text derived many of its images from nature.
As the language evolved
animals become dissociated from nature...
and simply came to represent sounds and letters.
The horns of the cow God holding the sun disc
became the sign for the sound "Oop".
This leap from nature to symbol to sound -
is at the heart of all future writing.
The Nile still supports
a great array of races and cultures.
Nobody lives closer to the river than the Nuer.
When the annual flood waters recede
the Nuer return with their cattle to the river's edge
Once the flood damage has been repaired
the women take great pride in looking after their huts.
As in so many African societies
women bear a heavy responsibility
They ensure continuity of the family line
and the survival of tribal culture
In addition to their duties in looking after the cattle
women must be mothers wives and home -makers.
For the Nuer it's the simple things that matter most
birth, death and marriage.
Anuk has four daughters.
Like all Nuer girls they will marry in their early teens.
This elaborately decorated patio seat
announces the girl's availability.
The most common decorative motif
is a wavy pattern reminiscent of a flowing river
Not surprisingly this is just the way
the Egyptians depicted the Nile
it's also similar to the hieroglyph for water.
Mud is also shaped into cones that top every Nuer roof
Each is a kind of coat of arms a family totem.
In adult life these boys will build real villages
repairing each year the damage done by the floods.
Their sister have their own preoccupations.
They remove their waistbands - a sign of virginity -
and them on models of their future homes
soon these girls will be seeking husbands and bearing children.
The women of Ancient Egypt were renowned for their beauty
and much of the poetry is about courtship.
An Egyptian village is a large extended family
and virtually everybody is related to everybody else.
The children may not know
what jobs they'll have when they grow up
but many already know who they'll marry.
As in Ancient Egypt
most girls get married at an early age
Hanna is 16 and today is her wedding day.
This is the last time
she'll carry out her domestic duties at the home
of her parents
Though not exactly apprehensive
she knows her life will be very different.
I know that once I’m married everything will change
when you become a house -wife
it's very different from being a young girl.
Till now I’ve done as I please
but it won't be like that in my husband's house
I’ll have to ask him permission to go certain places
and if he says no that's it.
Hanan is one of thirteen children
For her mother um Khairi
it's been a continual struggle
to feed and clothe the family
it's a familiar story in the villages along the Nile
and if Um Khairi has one hope
it's that her daughter will be more fortunate than she was.
"I wish her every happiness
and hope she’ll bring her husband much prosperity
I don't want her to be like me
I've had too many children and I've suffered a lot
if she has just two children she'll be able to feed them
and send them to school."
In ancient Egypt a wedding was described as "founding a house
Before the festivities
Um Khairi inspects her daughter's new home
The groom's mother greets her at the door.
This is the hall leading to the sitting room
This is the sitting room and we'll have curtains
here and here
and the entrance will be here.
Here we come to the salon
Here there will also be curtains
and there will be carpets on the floor
And this is all ours to the horizon.
This cattle is ours
those two buffaloes are ours All this plot is ours.
To the Ancient Egyptians
monogamous marriage was part of the divine order.
Here the dwarf tailor Seneb is presented in a family group.
His children are depicted with their fingers to their lips
the traditional sign of childhood.
Egyptian sculptors celebrated the tenderness
between man and wife.
By the day of the wedding
Hanan and her mother have spent the dowry.
Hanan's eldest brother Khairi
must now reassure the groom's family
that the dowry has been sensibly spent.
Hanan's husband -to -be Ahmed
looks on as Khairi signs a document
listing the young couple's new possessions
Once the contract has been signed
the couple’s dowry furniture
- together with gifts from family and friend-is
paraded through the village.
Everyday events like this
shaped the Ancient Egyptians vision off the afterlife
just as the young couple
take their furniture into their new home
their pharaohonic ancestors
took their everyday possessions.
Into their tombs when they died.
Egyptians have always idealized feminine beauty
servants primp the waxed wig of a Queen
as she takes her breakfast
but women of all classes wore jewelery and make-up.
Among the most ancient customs is the henna-ing
and at a wedding this is made into a special ceremony.
While gold silver and rare gems were imported from the Near East
eye make-up like kohi came from as far away as Ethiopia.
At hanan's wedding
everyone’s contribution is acknowledged
and Khairi reads out a list of gifts and givers for all to hear.
For the ancient Egyptians
marriage was literally for all time
just as their friends wished them a long
and prosperous life on earth
they also hoped and believed
their happiness together would continue in life after death.
The timelessness of marriage has been captured for all time
in the figures of Rahotep and Nofret
two courtiers who lived around 2.600 B C
at the dawn of Egypt's greatest era.
By the time the Romans over-ran Egypt in 30 B C
the pharaohonic world had begun to crumble
Two giant status the Colossi of Memnon
are all that remain of a once great temple.
During the thousand years before Christ
the Egyptians suffered many invasions
Although their belief system remained intact
the invaders came to exploit the country
as well as to marvel at its culture.
The temple behind the colossi was destroyed by an earthquake
now the newcomers made their own mark
one Roman emperor carved his name on the stone
and casual vandalism has continued from that day on.
The Romans conquered Egypt because they wanted grain
But Egypt was also the gateway to Africa
to a world teeming with wild animals.
In amphitheatres throughout the Empire
vast numbers of animals were slaughtered
for the entertainment of the masses.
5.000 wild animals were killed
on the day the Coliseum opened in Rome
During the rule of Nero
the Praetorian guard slaughtered 400 bears
and 300 lions in a single day.
Christians and criminals were fed to wild cats:
Slaves were forced to kill slaves.
Animals were captured far beyond the frontiers of the Empire
The Egyptians had defied nature
the Romans enslaved it.
No creature was safe.
The waters still tumble over the falls at Tissisat
but the mountain elephants have long gone
it wasn't just hunting that drove them to extinction
but the loss of their forest home.
Nearby on lake Tana
the papyrus boats enable the wood-cutters
to exploit the remotest shores.
Virtually everyone in Ethiopia cooks with wood
but there's also a heave demand for building timber.
Today there are 50 million Ethiopians
3 times as many in 1950
and the vast majority live off the land.
Every year more forest is felled to satisfy their needs
and all but a tenth of the original forest
has now disappeared.
This is eucalyptus.
In many areas
it's the only fuel available for cooking.
Eucalyptus is a fast -growing tree
that has been planted to replaced the native forest.
It's also a menace
with its thirst for water
it breaks up the soil and causes serious erosion.
All that's left of the native forest here
is a single Acacia tree
The surrounding eucalyptus supports little wildlife.
Over much of the highlands forests have been cleared
After the rains the fields look loose and green...
But with no trees to bind the soil
the land is raked by summer winds
and huge volumes of top soil are washed into the rivers.
Scattered around the Ethiopian highlands however
are small oases where nature survives.
The monastery of Debra
Lebanos is surrounded by its own Garden of Eden
Ancient Christian traditions
are saving wildlife from extinction
The Gelada baboon used to be common throughout Ethiopia
Now it's very rare
and only be found in isolated forests like these.
Pilgrimage is as important now as it was in mediaeval times
and on festival days farmers head for the monasteries.
Christianity arrived here in the fourth century.
Since then, highland Ethiopia has been predominantly Christian
and the traditions we see today are those of the early church.
They still use the system,
an Instrument played by priests in the temples of Ancient Egypt.
Ethiopians were long part of a ribbon of Christianity
that ran along the Nile from Alexandria in Egypt
to the highland head waters.
The churches of Egypt and Ethiopia
are linked by common beliefs
and centuries of isolation from mainstream European Christianity.
Both churches have a powerful monastic tradition,
and their spiritual leaders always come from the monasteries.
Today's church leader, Paulus V
stands at the end of a long line of Ethiopian Patriarchs.
Among the most ancient of those monasteries
are those on the islands of Lake Tana,
source of the Blue Nile.
Like Debra Lebanos,
these islands are thick with native forest.
Monastic retreats have always been nature reserves.
Ethiopian monasteries, like their European counterparts,
are great centers of learning and Christianity...
In times of turmoil, monks kept alive all the ideas
that meant civilization
not just religion,
but also history and literature.
This parchment bible is illuminated
with the stories that sustain faith.
It could well have been produced by monks in the eighth century.
The story of the passion and death of Jesus Christ.
The material world holds little attraction for monks.
Theirs is a life of prayer, poverty and obedience.
Living in sanctuaries of devotion,
isolated from the distractions of the outside world,
orthodox tradition dictates that man will find God
by contemplating nature.
As well as being libraries,
monasteries are also nature reserves.
For the monks,
nature is the other book through which God speaks.
Today, these islands are important breeding sites.
They are also critical winter habitat
for many migrating birds.
Respect for birdlife is shared by all Ethiopian highlanders.
Deep-seated religious traditions derive from Old Testament laws
against eating lbis, herons, storks and web-footed birds.
Dietary prohibitions have effectively conserved
an astounding 96% of the country's 830 bird species.
Even during the famines of recent decades,
the birds on Lake Tana were left in peace.
To live in harmony with nature is to be close to God.
Every monk strives to find himself inside nature's web of life.
These men live by rules laid down in Egypt in the fourth century,
the same rules that would later govern monastic life
in mediaeval Europe.
Monks themselves do everything necessary to run the monastery.
This simple way of life
allows them to concentrate on their devotions to God.
"No one complains what kind of obligation is assigned to him.
This is just an absolute submission of all members
so they do what ever is being asked and required from them.
Then they live together,
they eat once a day very minimal and simple food."
The food may be simple, but for young novices,
monasteries provide the security
their peasant families have never known.
Here they will always be fed and cared for.
At Debra Lebanos, the life of communal prayer
and contemplation continues far into the night.
These ancient hymns and psalms have echoed unchanged
through the centuries.
For some monks. However,
life in the monastery is not austere enough.
They set themselves apart to live in solitude.
"There are people who think that even this kind of
a very strict communal life is too luxurious for them.
So they prefer to isolate themselves from the community
and they make very small contacts for the sake of survival
in order that somebody to offer them a glass of water
or a handful of beans or something."
Father Atello came to Debra Lebanos as a child.
He's been living alone
in a cave above the monastery for thirty years.
He even avoids contact with the novice
who brings his meager meals.
When Father Atello first became a hermit, he vowed not to eat
but he became too weak to pray.
A rigorous routine of prayer dominates his daily life.
"Planting a tree is like giving birth to a child.
We are monks without hope or desire of producing offspring.
Planting trees brings reward and grace from God."
Monks are heirs to a long tradition of caring for nature.
In Africa, it extends back to the Pharaohs.
In Europe, to St. Francis of Assisi.
In Ethiopia, monasteries are a last oasis of hope
immediately north of Lake Tana, is the ancient city of Gondor,
former capital of Ethiopia.
Its fourteenth century castle
was built at a time of great spiritual fervor.
It's an emotion that can still be felt today
at the annual festival of Timkut,
are-enactment of the immersion of Christ by John the Baptist.
Timukut celebrates the sanctity of water,
And it starts with a parade of the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark is among the holiest of images in Ethiopia.
In it God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.
Every year replicas of all the Arks, from all the churches,
are carried on the heads of priests to a pool of Nile water.
Just as Christ was baptized in the river Jordan,
so the people of Gondor are re-baptized every year
in the head-waters of the Nile.
Monks, dressed in mediaeval vestments, come from all over
to take part in this annual festival of a spiritual renewal.
The ceremony begins with a candle-lit crucifix
set adrift on the waters.
In a reversal of the original baptism, it is the innocent,
the children, who baptize the adults,
splashing them with holy water.
The day is a festival of baptism. For Pope Shonuda,
it's deeply linked with the religion of the Pharaohs.
But water can be as good for the body as it is for the soul.
Near the source of the Nile, whole families gather,
drawn to the enduring presence and energy of the river.
Here they pray for their sick their halt and their lame.
These are festive occasions.
They break bread, drink coffee, and pray.
Chants fill the air, summoning up healing spirits.
Offerings are made to the gods of the Nile.
It's a powerful invocation combining fire and water and blood.
Cairo has long been one of the great cities
of Islamic learning and art.
Sultan Hassan, one of the greatest mosques,
was built in the thirteenth century.
Even here
it's hard not to notice influences from Ancient Egypt.
To enter a mosque is to enter into God's presence.
There's more than a hint of the past here:
Daily devotions that acknowledge the rising of the sun...
Abstract designs based on nature...
The banded entryway to eternal life.
As an Egyptian, Adel is aware of his rich heritage:
Islam and Christianity stand near the end
of the great river of time that is the Nile.
But all faiths have always prayed for eternal life,
and have believed that the way you live this life
will determine your status in the next.
It's an idea that descends to us
little modified since the time of the Pharaohs.
Countless tomb paintings show funeral possessions...
with professional wailers
weeping for the spirit of the departed.
Tombs were filled with everything
the dead might be expected to need in the afterlife
even down to their sandals.
Vast numbers of mummified animal gods
were also placed in the tombs.
This man was buried 6,000 years ago
on the edge of the desert
where his body was naturally mummified by the drying sands.
Even at that time people were buried facing the setting sun,
and provided with food and images for the afterlife.
The tradition of preparing for eternity was so strong
that by early Pharaonic times,
realistic sculptures were placed in tombs,
waiting to be inhabited by the spirits of the dead.
Glass eyes enabled the dead to gaze out on a new life.
The great monumental tombs
ensured not only the afterlife of the Pharaoh,
but also through his survival
the spirits of all his people.
For the Egyptians
the most terrifying thing in the world
was the idea of oblivion
that they would fail the tests
that gave them entry into the underworld.
The passage they hoped to make from death to eternity
is recorded in The Books of the Dead.
In the Opening of the Mouth ceremony,
they recite spells over the mummy
to restore the powers of life, especially sight and speech,
which the spirit will need on the journey ahead.
Now the soul must pass through twenty eight gates,
but to get beyond the guardian gods of the underworld,
every spell, every invocation, must be word perfect.
Here the royal scribe Ani sets off on his journey
through the gates accompanied by his wife Tutu.
After satisfying each guardian god,
he passes through to the next gate and the journey continues.
He is guided by the jackal god Anubis
into the house of the two truths to face the ultimate test,
where his spirit will either be cast into the hell of oblivion,
or enter into paradise.
Paraded before a jury of gods
to each in turn he declared his innocence.
As confirmation that the dead is telling the truth,
his heart is weighed against a feather
on the scales of justice.
The beast Ammut stands ready
to devour any hearts laden with sin.
Thoth, the god of wisdom,
declares the dead person to be True of Voice.
He is then led to meet Osiris, the god of the Underworld,
who ushers him into Paradise.
Out of the mud and water of the Nile,
the Ancient Egyptians created a paradise on earth.
In their imagination it could not be bettered
and they took the best of it with them to the next world.
For 4,000 years
the Pharaohs have gazed across the fields of Egypt,
Plainly, the view has changed.
The industrial present has arrived.
But it still exists side by side with an agricultural past.
More and more people are leaving the countryside
and flooding into the cities.
In the modern world, men and women live far from nature
far from the world that shaped the beliefs of Ancient Egypt.
Nevertheless, thoughts of an earthly paradise persist.
All societies, all religions across the ages
aspire to return to a Garden of Eden.
It's place that live on in our imaginations,
and can still be found along the headwaters of the Nile
"Our ends are in our beginnings,"
the poet Eliot once said.
"And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
What we find along the Nile today
is an old idea that has a new resonance.
At the core of Egyptian religion lies the belief that
men and animals should live in harmony and that
mankind has a responsibility to ensure that
all this continues.
It's an idea that persists,
shimmers in the memory of an Ancient time
when the Nile was the River of Gods.