All language subtitles for The.Nile.Egypts.Great.River.with.Bettany.Hughes.Series.1.1of4.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

For 5,000 years this land, Egypt,
and the epic civilisation it gave

birth to has been shaped by one
thing more than any other,

this awesome river.

The River Nile.

The Nile helped temples to rise...

...Pharaohs to rule and pyramids
to be built.

Without the Nile there'd have been
no Ancient Egypt.

So, I'm setting off on the
historicaljourney of a lifetime,

a 900 mile adventure, along the
Nile, across the whole of Egypt.

I'll explore Egypt's
greatest achievements...

It is truly wonderful, isn't it?

...And find treasures hidden
for thousands of years.

Oh, my God. That's a sheer
drop down.

This is my chance to travel
this fabulous land.

And experience it as the ancient
Egyptians did, from the River Nile.

From pharaohs to slaves,
from facts to fantasies,

I want to explore, first hand,
and understand how this river

shaped one of the world's first,
and greatest, civilisations.

Join me as I uncover 5,000 years
of history along the River Nile.

For thousands of years this river
has been the lifeblood of Egypt.

My first taste of the mighty
Nile is its mouth.

I've hitched a lift on this
fishing boat to check out

where the river meets the sea.

These boats are coming in from
the Mediterranean.

I'm right at the very mouth of the
Nile delta.

Since ancient times this has been
Egypt's gateway to the world,

and it was along these waters
the world connected

to a civilisation that's had
enormous influence on all our lives.

For thousands of years the Nile
has nourished culture,

and civilisation, and technology.
But it's also been people's home.

So over the next few weeks
I'm going to be leaving the land,

and living on the water.

I hope to be meeting old friends
and perhaps making new ones

so I can try to understand the
power, and the secrets,

and the stories of
this historical dynamo.

My journey proper begins
on the other side of the Nile Delta

at Cairo, where the mass of streams
and canals at the Nile's end come

together to form one glorious river.

From there, I'm sailing upstream
using the river like a historical

treasure map to investigate
great sites and new discoveries

from ancient Egypt.

It's an adventure along Egypt's
river artery,

all the way to its border
with Sudan.

But to do any of this, I'm going
to need more than

just a fishing boat.

Because I'm making a historical
journey,

my home for the next couple of weeks
is going to be a traditional boat

that for centuries has sailed
up and down the river Nile.

It's this beautiful thing,
a Dahabiya.

Part barge part sailboat, Dahabiyas
are unique to the shallow waters

of the Nile.

My goodness, this
is absolutely huge.

I wasn't expecting it to be so big.

Hello. Hi. Are you Osama? Please.
Nice to meet you.

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you
so much. Please. I will.

Gosh, this is so beautiful.
What an amazing boat.

I've seen them in pictures,
these, but I've never actually

had a chance to sail on one before.

Flat bottom boats like this
have sailed up the Nile

for thousands of years.

In ancient Egypt the symbol
for any kind of a journey

was a boat.

This is our captain.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Hi, I'm Bettany. Welcome.
Thank you.

And this is this is your cruise.
Yeah. Hi, Gentlemen.

Hi, I'm Bettany.

The ancient Egyptians were a bit
wary of ocean travel,

but when it came to the Nile
they were in their element.

Let me show you cabin.

Cruises on Dahabiyas like this
became popular 200 years ago,

as modern day travellers fell under
Egypt's spell.

Pitch-black in here, everybody.

I'll open the curtains.

Oh, my goodness.

Hello, Nile.

This is ridiculous.

What am I going to tell my husband
and my kids when I get home?

They think I'm working very hard.

This is your private terrace.
I've got my own little deck.

Oh, that's not bad, Osama.
I do really love this river.

The river Nile is actually
the father of all other rivers,

all over the world.

Yes. This is what I think
about the River Nile.

Yes. Yeah, well, it just created
a whole world, didn't it, the Nile?

There's no doubt. No. Amazing.

I'm not going to explore
its secrets.

One thing you learned quickly
in Egypt is that it's smart to avoid

the midday heat.

So, as dawn arrives the crew
get ready to depart.

And as the sun
appears we're on our way.

The Nile united ancient Egyptians
from north to south, bank to bank.

I want to try to understand
these people,

and the role this river
played in all their lives.

And I'll be exploring the land
that first got me hooked on history.

Whenever I go travelling I always
take one of these,

so I write notes on the places
I've visited.

I bring quotes from ancient authors
and sometimes photos.

But for this trip I've been asked
to include some photos of myself

and there's a reason for this.

I was five years old when I first
saw the British Museum,

and it's amazing
Tutankhamun exhibition.

That experience inspired me
to write my first book.

This is My Busy Book,
by Bettany.

This is my theory on why, and how,
Tutankhamun died.

"Tutankhamun was a long time ago.

He must have lots of men
because he was rich,

and he was very, very nice.

But one day some, spelt 'sum',
mosquitoes, that were very germy,

bit him, and he died. Somebody
buried the jewellery,

and made doors for the jewellery,
but after some men dug it up."

Obviously, archaeologists.

And lots and lots, and lots, and
lots of people went to the museum,

and on the television you can
see it.

The story of Tutankhamun
has captivated millions.

He's one of the reasons
I became a historian.

I've been tipped off that this
afternoon something rather

extraordinary is happening.

I've got an appointment

with one of the world's
leading Egyptologists

at the Egyptian Museum.

I can't tell you how much
this is my happy place,

because this museum is 5,000
square meters.

It's absolutely jam packed
with artefacts,

and treasures and objects.

They even say there's not
enough room for them all.

So they have to be stored
out here in the courtyard.

This magnificent museum
holds 120,000 Egyptian antiquities.

Amongst them is the world's greatest
collection of royal coffins.

And this afternoon one of them
is going to be opened

for a very rare glimpse of the
mummy inside.

I think it's somewhere around here.
I think.

Hi, Salima.

Professor Salima lkram and I share
a passion for the story of Egypt.

I'm so pleased that you could come.

Salima is a world expert
in mummification.

And today I'm joining her team.

Their subject is 3,400 years old.

She's called Thuya.

And she's no less than the great
grandmother of Tutankhamun.

I've never actually seen her face.

No, no, because this has not
been opened for ages.

Salima needs to check on
Thuya's body, so her glass cabinet

is being opened.

Her coffin lid will be removed.

And for the first time in years,
we'll be able to see her mummified.

In the centre of modern Cairo
just yards from the River Nile

I've come to the Egyptian Museum
for a rather special rendezvous.

This afternoon I'm coming
face-to-face with the great
grandmother

of Tutankhamun.

Oh, my goodness. My heart
is actually beating faster.

Why she's special, is it's maybe
one of the best preserved mummies.

Absolutely. She is one of the best
preserved mummies that we have.

This is Thuya.

She was discovered two decades
before her great grandson.

When we look at her face, do you
think that could give us

any genetic clues as to what
Tutankhamun looked like?

I think that would be quite possible
especially because they've got

the same set of teeth sticking
out a bit.

What's really extraordinary
is that she's not born royal.

There's a lot of social mobility.

I mean, she starts off quite
common. just has a priestess,

and then she's in this splendid
tomb with all of this gold,

and stuff. Amazing.

Can you smell that?

It smells like resins and incense.
It does.

So, look down here.

That's actually the resins that
are part of the mummification

and burial ritual, and they were
poured over,

and some of them are still...

you can see it must have been in a
funny position

because of the way it's
dribbled. Wow.

Can I just have a moment to get
this millennia old smell?

That is amazing.

This is closer than anyone
normally gets to Thuya.

Yeah, I think all of our
conservators are ready.

It's time to see how the lady
herself is faring.

OK.

Oh, my God! Look at her!

She's magnificent.

She's so tiny, and so perfect.

Look at her hair, she's got this
beautiful, thick head of curly,

kind of, strawberry blonde...
is that the original colour?

Well, we did... We're not 100% sure,

but when you're using natron which
we use for mummification,

it's a bleach.

So it's like putting salt on your
hair, when you go to the beach.

And look at her. She's got double
pierced earrings.

She has.

She does have that
Tutankhamun overbite.

She's even more beautiful
than in her pictures.

By Thuya's time mummification
had been practised

for at least 1,200 years.

That sophisticated process
of preparing and preserving the body

would have taken over two
months to complete.

She's a really fine example
of mummification

but how can you tell that? What here
tells you this is a really, really,

really good job. Well, I mean, it's
a totally, beautifully

well-preserved, recognisable face.

Completely. You can
see her eyebrows and cheekbones.

Sometimes the nose goes a bit funny.
Yeah, she's got a little bit of

stuffing, she looks
absolutely gorgeous.

The ears are so well preserved,
it's not broken,

she's got her hair, the kind
of wrapping,

the individual wrapping of her
tootsies is so perfect.

The fact that she's wearing sandals,

and really every care was taken
with her,

and from the smell you can also tell

that it was really
good quality resins.

OK, look this is really cool.

OK. See. Look at her eyes. Yeah.

So what they did was, they lifted
the lids up and then they put

in pieces of cloth which they put
a bit of resin onto and made them

look like eyes, so that she can see
things in her afterlife.

Just look at that face.

What she's seen, what she's lived
through.

The world that she experienced.

My God, if she could talk,
what she could tell us.

Salima will now check
that the humidity of the museum

hasn't been affecting to Thuya.

But the signs are, that well
into her fourth millennium,

she's doing very well indeed.

Just to be that close to her face
it really makes you realise

this was a woman, like me. A woman
who's had children,

who lived through a life and was now
going really happily through death

to another world.

And I think you've got to remember
that. We think that mummies

are something kind of grisly,
and gruesome, and scary.

But, for these people, this is
the beginning

of the best after-party.

And whatever happened to her, I hope
that Thuya

has been enjoying herself.

The eternal afterlife,
and the detailed preparations

for it, make the ancient
Egyptians endlessly fascinating.

But they weren't death obsessed.
They were great lovers of life too.

From the Nile's water levels,
to the sun's movement

and nature around them.

They made detailed observations
of the world that they lived in.

I brought something slightly
bizarre with me.

This is a replica of an ancient
Egyptian hedgehog.

The Ancient Egyptians
loved hedgehogs.

They thought they were slightly
magical because they hibernated,

and then seemed to come
back to life.

They were very resilient
against snake bites,

and so the hedgehog was a symbol
of good luck.

And for good luck travelling
the Nile ancient boats would often

carry an image of a hedgehog.

So while my friend keeps an eye
on the boat, I'm disembarking

to investigate some monuments
that combine

the Egyptian fascination with death,
with the pioneering work of living.

It's difficult to imagine
an ancient site more iconic

than the pyramids of Giza.

Just look at these
incredible things.

However many times I see them,
I'm never not blown away by them.

They just pound with human ambition.

The West Bank of the Nile boasts
over 100 pyramids,

but none are as famous as these.

They've been astounding onlookers
for 4,500 years.

And recent discoveries mean
we're finally able

to appreciate them properly.

We're so used to thinking these are
desert monuments, in a desert

landscape but when they were
originally built it would've

been completely different
around here.

For the Nile, now, is about
five miles away.

But at the time it came right
up close to the pyramids.

And when it flooded they would be
reflected in its glittering surface.

It's one of these structures
in particular I've come to see.

The Great Pyramid the eternal
resting place of the Pharaoh Khufu.

Scaling almost 500 feet, its
completion set new levels

for human achievement.

It was the world's tallest structure
for nearly 4,000 years.

This is one of the Seven Wonders
of the ancient world,

and it is the only one
that is still standing intact.

I'm obviously a huge fan
of the ancient world,

and ancient civilisations,

and there are many amazing things
across the globe,

but this is truly wonderful,
isn't it?

There are 2.3 million blocks
of stone here,

and each one has been perfectly
sculpted so it fits right next

to its neighbour. It's incredible.

The Great Pyramid took two decades
to complete.

With its original polished, white
limestone casing

it would have gleamed out in the
Egyptian sun.

Exactly who built it, and how,
has been the subject of wild

speculation for centuries.

It's been said that this was built
by aliens from outer space,

but, thank goodness, some new
historical evidence has appeared

that tells us without a doubt that
this pyramid was made by human hand.

And it's this remarkable thing.

This is a copy of an
ancient papyrus.

Found just six years ago
in a cave near the Red Sea,

it's the 4,500 year old journal
of a man called Merer.

Now, Merer was no less than a
project manager

for the Great Pyramid.

There is remarkable detail in here.

He's written down how they made
this beautiful thing.

There's that a line that tells us
that the limestone blocks that cover

the pyramid, that made it
that amazing gleaming white,

were brought from 15 miles
along the Nile.

Merer says it takes one day's
sail for this special stone

to reach the site,

confirming the Nile's crucial role
in the pyramids construction.

It's really a thrilling time to be
studying the pyramids.

Professor Mark Lerner
has spent his career investigating

the Giza Plateau.

So, if we'd been standing
here 4,500 years ago

what would be the landscape
that we'd be looking at?

You would have seen harbours,
and waterways,

and Nile barges coming in from
Aswan bringing granite.

You would have seen seagoing
ships coming

in from Lebanon bringing timber.

You would have had an multiethnic
community here,

and not just men. Men,
women, families.

It was a busy bustling scene,

with fires, and bakeries,
and butchers.

It's almost like a whole
civilisation culture, that's growing

around the creation of the pyramid.

They conscripted people from towns
and villages all throughout Egypt.

Then they come here and they are
embedded and integrated

into a project that involves tens
of thousands of people.

So, I'm still interested in how the
Egyptians built the pyramids.

But I'm almost more interested,
Bettany, in how the pyramids helped

to build Egypt-

Building the world's first
skyscraper was a transformational

moment in human history.

The city of workers that settled
here collaborated in a game changing

way, and with Mark's help I'm
getting a privileged look

behind the scenes, to get a glimpse
of their remarkable world.

So, welcome to our field lab.
Thank you so much.

For the past 30 years thousands
of artefacts found at Giza

have been brought here
to be assessed,

and studied in the archaeologists'
storeroom.

You can see it's much bigger
than you would think from outside.

One of the things we find
all over the site

are what we call dolerite
hammer stones. Here.

Oh, yeah. I knew it was going
to be heavy.

I didn't know it was going to
be that heavy.

That's actually straining
my arms. Yeah.

That's like a cannonball.

Well, when they started using it,
it is like a cannonball.

But when they started
it was probably pear shaped,

and they just use it to smash stone
surfaces away,

and then they'll turn
it and keep turning it,

so, in the end, they get kind
of a ball shape.

In Mark's latest excavation
he's found remarkable evidence

of how the people constructing
the pyramid lived.

And what they ate.

We found this enormous dump,

and it was so much animal bones
sheep, and goat, and cattle.

Yeah. And there was something
very curious about it.

Whenever we separate out
the good meat bearing bones,

we find that the ends
are broken off.

Two of our Egyptian field school
students said, "Oh, that's easy.

It's shorba kawareh which is
Arabic for like gelatine soup,

knuckle bone soup,

and the evidence is that somebody,
elites, people of higher status,

were eating the meat off the long,
good meat bearing parts of the bone.

But people of lower status
are eating very high fat,

high protein knuckle bone soup.

Mark's found the casseroles this
soup was served in...

It's so beautiful, that.

...And even their bespoke stands.

It's almost like a Tupperware set.

So, actually, it seems like they're
getting a pretty good diet.

Indeed. That casserole is
interesting cause that's

just like a family size casserole.
Yeah.

Are they mass-producing food
as well?

They were making your standard,
average kitchen bread mould,

and bread loaf. And then, if I
may, over here... Mm hmm.

They were increasing it.

They were reaching for economy
of scale, by making

these gigantic bread moulds.
Yeah, yeah.

Have a feel. Oh, my gosh.
That is quite a responsibility,

you can have it back. Thank you.

But the big picture here is that
they didn't have bread factories.

They were creating the world's
first bread factory.

It's all a long way from
the stereotype of sweating slaves,

toiling away under
the Pharaoh's whip.

Even the tiniest finds
are captivating.

These are tubular beads.

We find these beads everywhere.

Look at the colour. It's such a
tiny little thing.

But, I mean, who's wearing these?

And we're finding them
in the workers' barracks.

Right where we find all the big
heavy dolerite pounders.

So what, are you pounding stone

as you're wearing your
beaded nugget? We don't know.

Finds like these speak volumes,

helping to jigsaw puzzle together
a picture of life

for those at the bottom of the pile.

Upstream though, I'm about to
witness the terrifying power

of the Pharaoh, as I adventure
right inside a very special pyramid.

So I've said goodbye to Cairo,

and we're off, and it's 500 miles
of the Nile to come.

From here to the southern city
of Aswan my riverboat

will be following in the footsteps
of Pharaoh's warriors and traders.

But this journey was also
made by tourists of the past,

and their vessel of choice was
the Dahabiya.

I'm still a bit embarrassed
by the luxury of this boat,

but, actually, it is quite
appropriate for how people

used to sail down the Nile.

Dahabiya gets its name from the
Arabic word 'dhabab',

which means golden because these
boats were supposed to be

so luxurious, and we have amazing
accounts of 18th and 19th century

travellers who used them.

Let me just tell you of some
things they brought on.

So one packed 100 bottles of wine,
champagne, a piano for entertainment

and there was even a British family
who brought their own cow,

so that they could have fresh
milk every morning.

These cruises could last for months
on a river famed, from ancient times

onwards, for its hidden
and unexpected dangers.

Hi, boys. ls everything OK?

Oh, my gosh. There's somebody
down in the Nile down here.

Two of them.

What's happening? We have a very
shallow water. Yeah.

And one of the ropes has gone around
the paddle. OK.

It seems that the tug boat that
helps pull the Dahabiya along

has got stuck on one of the Nile's
many sand banks.

It's tight rope is now wrapped
around its propeller.

Tim, our cameraman, decided to
go in and see if he can help.

There's loads of people just doing
that classic thing when something

bad happens, they're just sort
of standing around.

The Nile is such a paradise river.

So there are sand banks
and cataracts.

But, isn't it interesting,
that this can still happen?

You get the feeling this isn't
the first time the crew have dealt

with something like this.

It's all very new to us
though, especially Tim.

You know the funniest thing,
Bettany? What?

Like a plonker, I left my wallet...

But with the propeller freed,

and some British cash drying
in the sun,

we're on our way.

Ten miles south of Cairo

I'm heading to the fast royal burial
ground of Saqqara.

But first, there's just time to
share with you one of the biggest

breakthroughs ever in our
understanding of Ancient Egypt.

The people who lived around the Nile
Valley were some of the very first

to do an incredible thing.

They put their spoken language
into something

that could be recorded, a writing,

and of course that's amazing for us
historians because we get

to understand their lives,
and how they lived

and what mattered to them.

Now, of course the language
that they used was Egyptian

hieroglyphics which is very
beautiful, but the problem

is that we lost the ability
to translate it for centuries,

which is one of the reasons
that the ancient Egyptians were such

a mysterious civilisation.

Then, in 1799, there was the most
amazing discovery on the Nile Delta.

It was the this thing.

This is the Rosetta Stone.

In 1882 the real Rosetta Stone
was snaffled by the Brits, and ended

up in the British Museum
in London.

Covered in writing it's been a vital
key to understanding ancient Egypt.

Because it's got two languages
on it,

so Egyptian and ancient Greek,

it means it can act as a kind
of code breaker.

The problem was, of course,

that people could read ancient Greek
but not the Egyptian hieroglyphics.

And there was this race
on between France and England to see

who could crack the code first.

And I'm sorry to say the French won,

and what they did was that they
found this word, here,

which in Greek says day of birth
or birthday, genethlia.

And they matched that up with this
hieroglyphic here,

which says birthday too.

So at once we could start to piece
together the story of the ancient

Egyptians in their own words.

This is the thing that stopped
the Egyptians being a mystery.

It meant that they were people
that we could really get

to know intimately.

And there's a prime example of that

at my next stop along the Nile.

They were building pyramids
here at Saqqara a whole

century before Giza.

I've come to find one of
Saqqara's hidden gems.

And I'm going to need
some desert transport.

Hello, sir. Hello, lady.

Hi.

Nice to see you. Hello!

You and your beautiful camel.

What's his name?

Ramesses ll. Ramesses ll?
So a very powerful pharaoh.

How old? Ten years.

Ten years!

Oh, you're so gorgeous, aren't you?

Oh! Hello, darling! Hello!

Oh, lovely!

Kissing me, and a little bit
of camel slobber in my ear.

I've missed that feeling. Hello!

Yes. Oh! Oh!

Camel slobber on my cheek!
That's beautiful.

He's very, very lovely. Thank you.

But sadly I'm not going to
be going on this camel today.

Thank you. Thank you so, so much.

I'd love to say that I'm doing
this Lawrence of Arabia moment,

I'm going to travel across
the desert on a camel.

But the problem is, when
the pyramids were first built,

there were no camels here,

we think. There's no evidence of
them, there are no bones, there's no

camels in hieroglyphs.

It took another 2,000 years
or so for them to come here,

but at the time of
the first pyramids...

Hello, good afternoon, sir.

...what you did have was a donkey.

Hello! Lovely to meet you.

Lovely to see you.

This morning,

my authentic Bronze Age desert
transport is called Whisky And Soda.

I'm not sure they had stirrups
then but, you know, in the name

of security... I can do this.
OK. Two, three. Oh!

Lovely. Oh, perfect.

I'm excited! Shall we go?
Yalla, yalla! Yalla, yalla!

Bye, Ramesses. See you
in 2,000 years! Bye!

Come on, darling. Up you go.

Oh, she's great, isn't she?

She's just a natural historian.

She wants to get there.

This empty desert landscape
would once have played host

to massive funeral processions as
dead pharaohs were carried to their

show-off newly designed tombs -

PYFamids.

This is the very first
pyramid ever built.

It's the Step Pyramid.

So you've got a tomb laid out
at the bottom, and then the pharaoh

decided to build another one on top
and another one and another one

that becomes like some kind of
massive wedding cake.

It's a kind of experiment, really.

It's when they're going,
I'm the most powerful man on Earth.

Look at me!

I can reach up to the sky,
I can reach up to the gods.

What I've come to see, though,
is another first for Egypt

on the other side of
the Step Pyramid.

Thank you.

Thank you, darling.

You've been beautiful.

These are the sorry ruins
of the pyramid built

for the pharaoh Unas.

People are being allowed back
in here for the first time in two

decades because it wasn't safe
and there was restoration work done.

When it was built 4,350 years ago,
this was the smallest pyramid

of its era.

But it was a game changer.

This is an extra special treat for
me because this is the first time

since I've come to Egypt that
I've been allowed in.

Hi, how are you? I'm very good.
You're from where? London.

London, welcome. Nice to see you.
Thank you.

So you've got the key to go in? Yes.

Amazing. Thank you.

The unique treasure of Unas'
pyramid is found underneath it.

Amazing. Thank you. Shukran.

It's pitch-black.

This 30-metre tunnel is leading me
right under the centre

of the pyramid.

Three granite slabs once blocked
this passage, separating

the outside world from
the burial chambers of Unas.

Oh, my goodness!

This is so beautiful!

I've seen pictures of this,
but I've never been in here.

Floor to ceiling, you've got...

...the walls covered in hieroglyphs.

Look at the state of them!
They're so beautifully preserved.

This was the first pyramid
ever to be decorated

in carved hieroglyphic writing.

Ritual spells for the dead.

Unas was a...

...I'd say a man with quite an ego,
and we can tell this here because...

...this is his name.

So here this is the name of Unas.
It's in what's called a cartouche,

which is French for a bullet.

It's a kind of bullet-shaped thing.

And once you start...

You can see the name of Unas
absolutely everywhere!

So it's Unas, Unas, Unas, Unas,
Unas. It just goes on.

And I don't know if you can see
here, there's another symbol that

keeps on appearing.
It's these waves of water.

So there are two here.
There's one here.

There's one here, there's one here,
there's one here.

The importance of water
and rivers couldn't be clearer.

One spell even claims Unas
is he who has caused the land

to be underwater.

Not only did Unas tell us
that he was the most powerful king,

but that he had divine powers,
and what he's saying here

is that it's him who caused the Nile
itself to flood. These hieroglyphs

don't always make for
pleasant reading.

They show that the ancient
Egyptians often blended

brilliance with brutality.

He says that he holds the hearts
of his enemies in his fingers,

that he burns their houses to the
ground, but there's something else,

and, actually, if you read
it, it's really shocking.

It's really upsetting
because it's Unas using his sex

BS a weapon.

It says that Unas copulates
with his penis.

Unas is lord of his seed. Unas
takes the wives of husbands

whenever he wants, whenever
his heart desires.

This is not a man that I would
have liked to have met in the flesh,

and it seems as though
he's no longer here,

we don't have his body, but there's
something that's recently

been discovered - that...

...if you look on the wall,
I don't know if you can see that,
there indented in...

...is the ghost of Unas.

So he's still here with us.

Unas has left a mighty legacy
and, along the Nile, there are other

treasures that are still as vibrant
today as they have been for

thousands of years.

The River Nile has always
been the lifeblood of Egypt,

and I'm exploring the sites
and the people who made

up a great civilisation
along its banks.

The many sites and treasures
around Cairo are behind me.

And this is my first taste
of a much quieter river.

Is that OK? Are you sure?

Bakkar has been working on dahabeahs
since he was 12 years old.

I've done a bit of sailing
too, but never anything like this.

So I'm sort of hopelessly trying
to help with the tiller.

It's quite hard,

this river. It's a difficult
river to sail on.

Yes.

So how old are you?

And the rest of your family have
all worked on boats, have they?

OK.

Is it your plan to become
a captain? Yes.

Very good! Yes.

We are actually heading
into the bank now.

Sorry, I'm really sorry!

I was pulling the wrong rope!

This is getting us in
the right direction, isn't it?

Good. Argh!

2,500 years ago,
Egypt was described as the gift

of the Nile.

And that's not changed.

Life just bursts out of the banks.

You can see why the ancients called
Egypt the Red Land for the desert

and the Black Land for the fertile
strips along the river.

This is a really lovely typical Nile
scene with farm animals and palm

trees and reeds and, actually,
if you start to look, you'll see

that there are people everywhere
because, in Egypt, 96%

of the population live near
or next to the Nile.

And that's because there's
just so little waterfall here.

This river really is the
source of life for Egypt.

And, actually, the water in this
river, almost all of it comes from

1,500 miles south in the
Ethiopian Highlands.

For thousands of years, the rainy
season in the Highlands led

to Egypt's annual flood.

By late summer, the water level
here could have risen eight

or nine metres...

...feeding the valley.

It was food nourished by the Nile
that powered a great civilisation.

And the crew have tipped me off
that right now is the time

for harvesting an ancient
Egyptian crop

still being fed by
the Nile's waters...

...dates.

They've been cultivating dates
here for over 6,000 years,

always fed by the waters
of the Nile.

The ancient Egyptians used dates
for everything - for building,

for furniture, for food,
for magic, for medicine,

and it was said that the date
was the bread of the desert.

From Stone Age coffins made
of date palm leaves...

...to dates themselves left as
offerings in the Step Pyramid,

and even for Tutankhamun himself.

This fruit has been the superfood
of ancient Egypt

since the very beginning.

The reason is simple -

dates can be dried, stored
and carried across the desert.

In bad times as well as good, dates
have kept this civilisation going.

They're a super-food in the modern
sense,too -

they're full of fibre and potassium

and - it's said - can even
lower blood pressure.

Morning, girls.

But if you want to taste
a truly fresh date,

you've got
to be here at harvest time.

Is it nice?

OK, here we go. First fresh date.

Slightly grubby.

SHE EXCLAIMS

No, not sweet.

Quite bitter, but very good.

Very nice and completely
white on the inside.

Thank you. Shukraan, ladies.
Shukraan.

The date harvest was always
an excuse for a good time -

for weddings and family
get-togethers -

and it's still the case today.

Well done. And he's learning.
You're teaching him. Yeah.

Yeah.
INDISTINCT

You will.

Tonight, some of the crew have
invited me to join them...

This looks delicious.
Have you got some?

...for a feast of traditional
dishes

Is this hummus? I love this. Hummus.

We think that we invented
the idea of superfoods.

I love the notion that the ancient
Egyptians actually got there first.

And in a way, the date was the fuel
of ancient Egyptian civilisation

and whether you were an all-powerful
pharaoh or one of those workers

who laboured away to build
the Giza pyramids,

you knew that you lived
in a land of plenty, and we know

that on beautiful nights
like this under a full moon,

men and women would get together
to share and celebrate the gifts

of the Nile -

as we are tonight.

I can't eat another date,
I've had so many!
SHE LAUGHS

It's nice. I know - it is better
for you than the biscuit.

Next time...

I'm on the trail of Cleopatra.

I'll brave the longest tomb
in Egypt...

The only thing I don't like are
small dark spaces.

Excuse me. Thank you.

...and I'll discover how
mummification

wasn't just for humans.

Its eye-sockets are staring
at me across 2,000 years.