"T's the ongest river on earth." "Fowing from the heart of a continent, it has written a story across the andscape as it forges its way north, through mountain," "forest, marsh" "and desert." "For centuries its waters have sustained ife in some of the harshest paces on Earth." "Without it, this corner of Africa woud be ony rock and dust and sand." "Civiisations have risen and faen on its banks." "Without its gifts, the pyramids woud never have been buit." "Mankind has ooked on this river and wondered at its mysteries - where it comes from, why it foods every year" "and how, fowing through the desert for thousands of kiometres it never runs dry?" "Many died attempting to unrave its secrets." "N doing so they became egends themseves, their names forever bound to the great river." "Doctor Livingstone presume." "Journey aong this river, through the ages, into the heart of Africa - a river that has shaped history;" "a river with the power to change the ives of a who encounter it... the Nie" "The Sahara." "Miions of square kiometres of scorched desert... and yet here fows a mighty river." "Since the dawn of history this river has performed miraces." "Every year, the waters of the Nie rose and transformed the desert." "This annua food created a fertie paradise." "Protected from the barren desert beyond, peope buit their ives on the promise of this food." "Nature's mirace buit a great civiisation " "Ancient Egypt." "Fueed by the Nie," "Egyptian society prospered." "But in truth their word was baanced on a knife edge." "One year, their abundant crops might attract pagues of bibica proportions... whie the next year they might face drought and famine." "The Nie hed them hostage." "Beyond their fieds ay the desert, ife and death in stark contrast." "The pharaoh had to maintain the baance of their word - appeasing their gods and ensuring the gift of the Nie." "They strugged to understand their word, hoping to tame its dark forces." "F they faied they faced catastrophe." "Three and a haf thousand years ago" "Egyptian civiisation entered a gorious stage in its story, at its heart the city of Thebes." "This is the beginning of the 'New Kingdom' - the goden age of great pharaohs ike Rameses and Tutankhamun." "The pharaoh stands at the pinnace of the known word." "Each attempts to outdo his predecessor with ever more dramatic dispays of power and prestige." "Throughout this period the banks of the Nie are a vast construction site." "The province of Thebes is home to over fifty thousand peope." "This is a time of prosperity." "N the sma viage of Djeme ife is good for the farmers, fishermen, and tempe buiders." "The stores overfow from the rich harvests." "There's time for eisure." "T's easy for the viagers to fee the Gods have bessed them - a this is thanks to the mirace of the Nie." "Around them Egyptians see a word of strange creatures which, ike them aso depend on the river." "Some are admired." "Some are feared." "A are respected." "The natura word has a profound infuence on the Egyptians - they see it as a word of magic." "T provides a potent source of symboism." "The tiapia fish is a symbo of rebirth - and this is why..." "The fish broods its young in the safety of its own mouth, before ejecting them in a coud of new ife." "The natura and the supernatura are intimatey connected." "Aware that they owe everything to their river, they imagine the Nie ies at the heart of a cosmos composed of water." "Even the sky is made of water." "Each day across the ceestia ocean sais the sun." "The sun and the Nie form a uniquey structured word." "The river running South to North, and the sun crossing the sky from East to west, are the twin axes that define their entire word." "They beieve this precisey ordered andscape was created by the gods, and everything within has its pace in a supernatura story." "The pharaoh is not ony their king but aso their direct ink to the supernatura." "Through prayer and rituas he must appease the gods to keep the eements of their watery word in baance." "The pharaoh is seen as the envoy of the most powerfu god in the Egyptian word." "Re the sun god." "Every morning Re magicay comes to ife, starting ajourney across the sky in his soar boat." "As the sun rises from the water, the viagers of Djeme wake to the cas of Hamadryas baboons." "After enduring the cod desert night baboons cimb to the top of the tempes to bathe in the first rays of the sun." "Egyptians beieve they are greeting Re, and that baboons are the chidren of the sun god, worshipping their father as he rises above the horizon." "They squabbe for the warmest spots." "Despite their unruy behaviour their reationship to the sun god makes them cut animas even given sacred burias." "The abours of the day begin under the gaze of the sun god." "As Re sais higher through the sky a creature appears from his heart:" "A powerfu predator - the peregrine facon." "Facon is an ay of the farmers, preying on crop-raiding pigeons." "The peregrine's commanding eye scours the fieds beow." "Dark patches beow the bird's eyes hep reduce the gare from the sun." "The facon bursts out of the sun, taking his prey by surprise." "The sun riding facon is the manifestation of one of the most important of a Egyptian gods, the a-seeing Horus." "Even the deadiest animas have their pace in the Egyptian word." "A man kier hunts among the farms of Ancient Egypt." "The cobra is righty feared." "Ts etha venom is injected into prey or spat up to two metres." "When threatened the cobra rears up and swes its neck musces " "an aggressive posture to deter potentia attackers." "The burning venom of the cobra is seen to mimic the burning rays of the midday sun." "Egyptians transform this etha creature into an ay:" "That etha power is re-directed so that the cobra becomes a protector of the pharaoh." "Even in the miniscue and the bizarre the Egyptians see refections of the great mysteries of their word." "From the fertie banks of the Nie to the desert a around nothing escapes their attention." "The strange ife cyce of the scarab beete seems to embody the sun's daiy journey." "Like the rising sun, the scarab beete appears to be born from the ground." "T then seeks out the materia to compete its ife cyce." "Fortunatey that materia is pentifu around the viage." "The beete aboriousy scupts the dung into a perfect sphere - this is where it wi ay its eggs." "T's such hard work, piracy is rife." "The best way to avoid being robbed is to get the ba away from the dung pie as fast as possibe." "The beete takes a direct route to safety by foowing a bearing taken from the sun." "T uses poarised patterns detected in the sky to keep it on track." "N the beete's journey the Egyptians see a tiny parae with the journey of the sun across the sky." "The scarab's ifecyce aso presents a hopefu image of continuity." "As the beete buries the dung ba it returns to the earth." "The dung wi become a subterranean arder for its young." "N three months time they wi emerge." "Meanwhie the setting sun too appears to be returning to the earth." "Re is about to start ajourney through the mysterious Underword - the pace of the dead." "T's a time of danger and uncertainty." "But Re has hep on this difficut journey from creatures of the Nie." "The Nie catfish ives in the mud on the bottom of the river eating detritus that fiters down from above." "The ong 'whiskers' aow it to fee its way through the darkness." "The catfish heps guide the sun back to the East to compete its cyce of birth, death and resurrection." "The sun's journey presents the Egyptians with daiy proof of the triumph of Life over the forces of Death." "By associating himsef with the sun god Re the Pharaoh strengthens and re-affirms his power." "The sun's unimited power and the water from the Nie create a paradise in the heart of a desert." "Safe within their narrow green word, the daly rhythms of ife appear to continue for the moment." "But of course the word does change." "This word is in constant fux." "The Egyptians know it, and fear it." "Their paradise coud so easly be ost." "The peope are aware of the fragiity of their word, subject to forces they cannot contro." "Now they are to face a critica time." "Despite the constancy of the sun's daiy cyce, its yeary cyce creates massive change." "The seasons brought by the sun wi transform the other axis of their word the Nie." "The Nie is their ony ifeine." "Every year they wait for the river to burst its banks and food." "Without it they cannot irrigate the and and raise their crops." "Without it there woud be no civiisation." "The Egyptians have aready seen the river fai them, with catastrophic consequences." "A twenty year drought destroyed the od Kingdom the age of the pyramids." "Much of the popuation had simpy starved to death when the foodwaters faied." "As the seasons progress the baance between order and chaos is about to shift." "They ook to the one person with the responsibiity to maintain this baance - the one who must ensure the Nie wi food," "the pharaoh." "He must mediate between his peope and the gods." "He derives his power from his father, the god osiris." "Osiris had taught his peope how to use the Nie to cutivate the and." "But osiris had a brother, Seth who was jeaous of his power and murdered him by cutting him into pieces and scattering them over the and." "But the broken body of osiris was bound back together and restored to ife." "Osiris is depicted with a green face to refect the fertiity he brought to the country." "Egyptians think of him each time the seasona food brings their and back to ife." "For his crime the murderous Seth was banished to the desert, the ream of chaos, from where he forever threatens to return and destroy the Egyptian word with pague, drought and famine." "The future of Egypt rests on the shouders of the pharaoh." "He must keep Seth's chaos at bay." "The peope of Egypt ook to him to protect them." "F he fais them now and cannot ensure the food they wi face the same catastrophe that befe the od Kingdom." "Each summer his kingship is tested." "T's mid June." "Egypt starts to heat up." "The threat to the cherished continuity and consistency of the viagers' ives begins." "The desert sands advance, threatening to extinguish the river." "Without the Nie the Egyptian word wi cease." "Water is becoming an ever more precious commodity." "Competition for the Nie's dwinding poos becomes intense." "Pushed to the imits of endurance, mae hippos become extremey dangerous as they fight over their diminishing territory." "Often these bouts are fought to the death." "The Nie's paradise is disappearing." "Caught up in the fighting, femae hippos aggressivey 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 Nie's creatures actuay wecomes the pitiess heat." "Crocodies crave the heat of the sun to maintain their own body temperature." "This bruta season presents itte chaenge to them!" "The river is becoming a very dangerous pace to be." "There is a stench of death." "A hippo carcass draws crocodies from mies around." "Some are over four metres ong." "Even for crocodies it is not easy to bite through the thick hide, but they've deveoped a unique way of feeding." "Spinning enabes them to twist off chunks of fesh." "They can demoish anything." "The abiity of crocodies to thrive whie others suffer inspires awe in the Egyptians." "They are honoured in specia tempes, worshipped as the god Sobek." "Whie they are aive they are pampered." "When they die, they are embamed and buried in sacred tombs." "As the ground bakes and the Nie dwindes, the Egyptians pray for the return of the food." "An entire civiisation hods its breath." "The pharaoh's position is now precarious." "He must prove he can infuence the gods." "His peope demand that he deivers the food." "They know the Nie has risen before to repenish their word, and they yearn for its arriva again" "but has the pharaoh been abe to appease the gods this year?" "A aong the vaey, peope are ooking to nature for signs of hope." "Then, at ast, one appears." "Focks of sacred ibis arrive from the south." "Egyptians have earned that the food wi surey foow." "Despite its critica importance Egyptians don't understand the nature of the food." "They beieve the Nie bubbes up far to the south from the depths of an underground sea." "Over a few weeks the water eve rises by neary ten metres." "The sun-baked and is transformed into a fooded pain covering thousands of square kiometres." "Athough wecome, the arriva of this much water is potentiay dangerous." "To tame the water the Pharaoh oversees dam buiding and irrigation to channe it safey over the and." "The Pharaoh has not faied his peope." "The rebirth of the Nie marks the Egyptian New Year." "As herads of the food, the sacred ibis that now popuate the river are hed in high esteem." "As they probe for snais they resembe scribes dipping pens into ink so are aso credited with the power of knowedge." "But in realty they are important for a more practica reason:" "Evidence from autopsies on mummies has shown that Egyptians suffered from biharzia, a iver parasite carried by water snais." "As the ibis eat the snais they make poos safe for the viagers to bathe." "The sacred ibis symboise the god Thoth, god of wisdom and master of time." "Before ong Thoth wi pay a pivota roe in the Pharaoh's destiny." "The rising waters bring the Nie vaey back to ife." "T becomes a refuge in the heart of the desert, attracting thousands of different birds on their migration across Africa." "As the food reaches its height in ate summer, the parched swamps of papyrus at the margins of the Nie are rejuvenated." "These swamps are fu of creatures attracted by an abundance of fish." "Fishing is big business for the viagers of Djeme fish are the currency by which even tempe buiders are paid." "The secret of the Nie's gift is not the water itsef, but the oad it has carried into Egypt miions of tonnes of rich sit." "When the waters begin to recede in the autumn, the back sit that remains is so rich that it appears to create ife spontaneousy." "Frogs and toads seem to born directy from the back mud." "Frog amuets are given as gifts to ceebrate the Egyptian New year, symbos of the resurrection of the and." "This is the busiest time of the year for the farmers." "The formess mud is transformed into an ordered grid of fieds." "The Nie's gifts are harnessed." "Now, the myth of osiris and his jeaous brother Seth wi be payed out... the sowing of the new crops is a reminder of osiris - murdered and 'buried' in the soi." "The Nie's water irrigates the sit-rich and it has created, and over the next few months these perfect growing conditions fufi the river's promise to restore ife." "As the crops grow, osiris rises again from the dead." "When the Nie keeps its promise the desert is transformed and Egypt becomes a paradise once more." "The forces of order and chaos are perfecty in baance." "But for how ong?" "Now is the spring harvest." "The crops are abundant but even this brings a new danger." "The curse of Seth might yet throw their word into chaos." "This year, the viages wi face a new threat, one they are poweress to avert." "When ocust popuations reach a critica density, they radicay ater their behaviour - massing into terrifying swarms that devour everything in their path." "The swarms appear from nowhere, swept aong by desert winds." "One square kiometre can contain fifty miion ocusts." "A swarm advances at four metres every second." "Locusts destroy not ony crops, but aso food stores." "Their droppings contaminate what itte food they eave behind." "Those who eat it are poisoned." "The baance of Egypt is broken." "The pague has decimated the popuation." "Cemeteries overfow with the dead." "The stench of death attracts scavengers." "But even in such desperate times, the peope seek signs of hope." "Their imagination transforms the wid dogs and jackas that scavenge around the cemeteries into Anubis, a God who escorts the sous of the dead into the underword." "Foowing the devastation by the ocust pague the pharaoh must take contro of the crisis." "He must organise the redistribution of the nation's reserves from other parts of his kingdom." "The viagers of Djeme can now start to rebuid their ives." "But just as order returns to their word, terribe news arrives from the city of Thebes." "The Pharaoh, the man they beieve to be a God, proves to be as morta as themseves." "The Pharaoh is dead." "Not ony does he eave a poitica vacuum, but now there is no-one to intercede with the gods." "The Egyptian's ordered word is in danger of descending into permanent chaos." "For the Egyptians, death is not the end." "They beieve that as ong as the body is intact, the spirit can be kept aive." "The pharaoh is prepared for mummification:" "The organs are removed and stored in canopic jars " "A except for the heart, upon which is paced a scarab amuet." "This wi be cruciay important ater." "The body is dried out with sat before being wrapped in hundreds of metres of bandages." "Even in death, the pharaoh's responsibiity to his peope is not over." "But it wi take seventy days unti he is ready to perform the most important test of his kingship and deiver them from chaos." "Summer is approaching, and they face the threat of drought once more." "Without their pharaoh the viagers fear for their future." "As the season of hardship intensifies" "Egyptian vutures are drawn coser to the shrinking river in the hope of finding a mea." "A coumn of vutures riding the therma currents is a sign of death." "The viagers catte are dying." "A vuture's hooked bi cuts easiy into the hide, and its bad head and neck saves proonged feather-ceaning." "T uses its buk and outstretched wings to try and dominate the carcass." "T's midsummer." "The Nie is now so ow it's possibe to wak across it." "The food is very ate." "The words of an ancient prophesy are becoming a realty:" "'What wi become of this and?" "The river of Egypt is dry..." "Let me show you the and in turmoi'." "A the viagers can do now is wait." "N the midst of drought, the entire kingdom faces catastrophe." "Have the gods deserted their word?" "At ast, the moment has come:" "The pharaoh is ready for his fina journey." "On the day of the his buria an extraordinary ceremony is payed out in secrecy through the Vçaey of the Kings." "Food from the dwinding reserves becomes sacred offerings." "The pharaoh's spirit must be nourished." "Nside the coffin, his body has been preserved and bound together in imitation of his father osiris." "The mummy and the provisions for his fina journey are carried to the tomb - carved fifty metres inside the mountain." "As the sun dies on the horizon, the Pharaoh enters the underword." "The mummy is eft in the tomb, the entrance seaed" "and hidden for eternity." "Their fate is in the hands of the dead pharaoh." "Can the chaos of Seth be ifted?" "Wi the food come?" "The Pharaoh is now traveing through the underword, a distorted refection of the Nie vaey." "Here he encounters familar Nie creatures again." "This time they pay a pivota roe in Egypt's destiny." "The Pharaoh finds himsef in the presence of the gods." "This is the Ha of Judgement." "T's time for the utimate test the weighing of the heart." "The pharaoh's heart is to be weighed against a feather - symbo of order and justice - principes by which the Pharaoh shoud have rued his peope." "The jacka-headed god Anubis paces the heart on the scaes." "The ibis-headed god Thoth stands by to record the resut." "The ceremony is overseen by osiris." "F the Pharaoh's heart is too heavy with sin it faces annihiation by the Devourer, a crocodie-headed monster." "The Egyptian word wi be doomed to remain in chaos." "The scarab amuet that was paced on the pharaoh's chest ensures his heart wi not betray him." "' Have not committed crimes against my peope... have not done what the gods hate... have not obstructed water when it shoud run... '" "At ast the Nie rises again, and its mirace is performed once more." "The vaey is revitaised." "Egyptians have proof the scaes have baanced." "The pharaoh has earned his pace aongside the gods." "From here he can hep maintain the baance of their word and keep chaos at bay." "The Ancient Egyptians deveoped a sophisticated cuture." "Where the word of the natura and the supernatura were intimatey bound together." "Never before or since has there been such a cose bond with the Natura word." "The age of the Pharaohs prospered for over three thousand years." "Their civiisation woud inspire a those that foowed." "But for a that the Egyptians never understood the truth behind the mirace that provided them with ife." "The gifts of a great river" " The Nie." "Next week." "Why do the Nie's waters rise and food each year?" "Where does its cargo of fertie soi come from?" "Journey far upstream, to swamps and mountains in the heart of Africa." "Witness the creation of a force powerfu enough to bring ife to a desert four thousand kiometres away." "The Nie." "Draining over three miion square kiometres of Africa, then fowing through one of the harshest deserts in the word." "T's the word's ongest river." "This river was the power house behind the word's first great civiisation." "Without the Nie's extraordinary fertiity, there woud be no Tutankhamen, no ceopatra, no pyramids." "T changed the word forever." "Each year, the Nie performed a mirace - a great food that brought not ony water to the parched desert, but a staggering one hundred and forty miion tonnes of fertie vocanic soi." "Somewhere far away, powerfu forces gathered to swe the river and send it racing downstream." "But the Ancient Egyptians had no idea where this food came from." "They beieved it was the gods who sent these vita gifts so reiaby each year." "Mpassabe rapids prevented the Egyptians traveing far enough upstream to discover the truth." "They ived in isoation, beieving this one green vaey contained their entire, god-given Universe." "They knew nothing of what ay beyond." "But where does the Nie's great food reay come from, and how is it abe to perform its mirace?" "The river has been reuctant to give up its secrets, now we can unrave the mystery." "The answer can ony be found at the end of an extraordinary journey, far upstream, into the remotest and strangest corners of Africa." "T's an epic journey... in search of the great food." "The Nie's infuence as a ifeine in the desert stretches a ong way south from Egypt - onwards into Nubia, now part of northern Sudan." "For over a thousand kiometres, the Nie is the ony source of ife in a forbidding desert known as "The Bey of Stones"." "For miennia, there have been human settements here on this green strip cinging to the banks of the Nie." "But it's a man-made oasis, extending ony as far as farmers can pump the river's precious water." "Animas have aso benefited from this transformation of barren desert into ush paradise." "These, the rivers origina inhabitants have witnessed more than one civiization born of the Nie." "These pyramids are the tombs of the so-caed" ""back pharaohs" of the Nubian Kingdom of Kush." "They too harnessed the Nie's riches, and were at one time powerfu enough to rue their Egyptian neighbours, a thousand kiometres to the north." "But unike the Egyptians, itte is known about their mysterious cuture and anguage." "A itte way upstream from those enigmatic pyramids, the Nie's story becomes more compicated." "Now there are two rivers the Bue Nie and the white Nie." "Here they meet and merge in what Arab poets ca "The ongest kiss in history"." "The ceary different coours of the Bue and white Nie suggest different characters and origins." "This meeting of the waters is the site of another great human settement" "Khartoum." "Khartoum is the capita of Sudan - a country of neary six hundred tribes and over a hundred anguages." "Centuries od," "Khartoum remains to this day one of the most important crossroads in the African andscape." "The Nie has seen Kushites, christians and Arabs each rue here in their time." "But sam has emerged as the dominant voice in modern Khartoum." "Every Friday, samic mystics sti gather to affirm their beiefs." "A crowd urges them to spin." "They enter a state of trance beieving in this way that they can span the divide between heaven and earth." "These are the egendary "whiring dervishes"." "Like the waters of the Bue and white Nie, peope have merged here." "N a human kaeidoscope," "Arabia meets Africa, and the od ways meet the new." "But throughout Khartoum's fuid history, the Nie's yeary food has remained the one true constant." "Beyond Khartoum, both branches of the Nie ead into a wider Africa..." "But which branch brings the great food?" "This, the arger branch, is the white Nie." "Just a few hundred kiometers upstream from a desert city, the white Nie fows through a whoy different and stranger word." "This is the Sudd." "T's one of the argest swamps in the word." "Sudd means "The barrier"." "Throughout history, anyone who tried to navigate this shifting andscape found it we named, and it sti is." "Arab and African words coide here." "Southern Sudan has seen many civi wars the atest raging for 2o years." "Hostie geography and poltics combine to keep the Sudd hidden from the outside word." "The course of the white Nie becomes ost in an ocean of papyrus reeds." "The abyrinth of papyrus provides food and sheter for enormous numbers of fish." "These waters are ceary fertie, but did they nourish the far away fieds of Ancient Egypt?" "The word of papyrus is aways on the move." "Air sacs in the stem give it great buoyancy." "Huge papyrus rafts drift on the current." "These restess isands of reeds constanty redefine the channes of the waterways." "T's no wonder exporers found the Sudd impenetrabe." "A heathy popuation of dangerous animas aso heps maintain the Sudd's inhospitabe reputation." "At this time of the year the huge swamp is, in fact, shrinking." "Fish become more densey concentrated, making them easier prey." "But it's not just the water that's becoming overcrowded... white-eared kob retreat into the dwinding grassands of the Sudd during the dry season - when they were ast counted there were thought to be a miion of them " "one of the greatest concentrations of arge animas on Earth - one thousand per square kiometre." "But the over-crowding has encourages strange behaviour." "The maes are forced to fight over femaes by protecting tiny, merey symboic, territories." "But they aren't the ony ones for which the white Nie is a ifeine in the dry season." "Over a miion peope and their catte ive in the Sudd." "Among them - the Dinka." "Their catte are at the centre of their word - they depend on them for surviva." "The reationship is certainy persona and spiritua, but above a it's practica." "Rarey kied and eaten, each cow is a precious source of mik or bood, forming much of the Dinka's diet." "Cow dung is burned for fue - the smoke and the ash deters the hordes of biting insects." "When they can, the Dinka catch fish from the swamp." "How can the Sudd sustain such huge numbers of peope, anteope and catte?" "T's a about to change..." "As the rain sets in, the entire swamp begins to swe..." "The Dinka are forced to move or the rising waters wi trap them." "The kob too." "Their migration is massive - t rivas that of the widebeest in East Africa." "N a year they wi trave thousands of kiometres, keeping one step ahead of the foodwaters." "Since the time of the Ancient Egyptians these peope have moved in rhythm with the Nie." "Unabe to sette, they coudn't buid great cities or monuments ike those of Egypt or Nubia." "Distant tributaries bring yet more water to the Sudd." "The Nie bursts its banks." "Grassands become akes." "As the rising waters reach a corners of the swamp, the transformation continues." "Strange beasts begin to appear." "This is a fish - a ungfish." "T's been cocooned in mud and mucus underground for months, waiting for the waters to rise." "Primitive ungs aow it to breathe air as it searches for the nearest poo." "But reaching water doesn't mean safety." "The shoebi stork is a giant of the swamp - we over a metre ta." "Ts bizarre beak is perfecty designed for feeding in muddy water where prey is difficut to target." "A huge beak increases the chance of success." "T's surprising what a muddy poo can hide..." "As the food reaches its height, the Sudd has doubed in size." "Now covering thirty two thousand square kiometres, it's one of the word's biggest wetands." "For a few months, this water-word is eft to nature." "For some, it's paradise." "Fish can now coonise areas that were recenty grassand." "Forjust a few weeks they can take advantage of the huge new suppies of food." "Spot-necked otters are very socia." "They ive in cose-knit famiy groups, often hunting together." "Nteigent and agie, they hunt using speed and cunning." "Webbed feet give propusion and a ong tai heps them steer." "Athough they prefer fish, these otters wi sometimes eat snais, frogs or even insects." "But there's one swamp creature that reay wi eat anything!" "With a muscuar body one and a haf metres ong and a powerfu, poisonous bite, the Nie Monitor is understandaby avoided by a its neighbours." "Reativey cumsy on and, underwater it's transformed into an agle hunter." "But the huge izard is just as happy eating others' rotting eftovers on the bottom of the swamp." "N fact, it wi eat and digest amost anything it can fit in its mouth." "The Nie monitor is one of the most adaptabe of a the Sudd's animas." "N this constanty changing water word it's a winning strategy." "Soon it's a change again..." "The tropica sun burns off the Nie's shaow waters, eaving a shifting mosaic of poos and new grassand." "Now it's time for the Dinka to return." "But others fare ess we as the and re-emerges." "This catfish coud easiy find itsef stranded but it has a curious abiity that might just save it." "F it can't swim, it' craw." "Speciay adapted fins aow the catfish to wak on its ebows." "Like the ungfish, it can aso breathe air." "T may have to perform this trick many times as its habitabe word gets smaer by the day." "Meanwhie, the kob are on the move again." "Their word is expanding rapidy." "As the foodwaters recede, a huge green carpet of new grass ros out before them." "This expains how the Sudd can support such massive herds." "But is this the same food and fertilty that sustained Ancient Egypt?" "There's no doubt that the white Nie has enough water and nutrients to competey transform the Sudd." "But the great marsh hods onto its riches." "T soaks up the water ike a massive sponge and the abyrinth of papyrus traps any sediment." "Despite a great infux of water, the food goes no further North " "the fow of the white Nie out of the Sudd changes itte through the year." "Ancient Egypt's desert word reled on the annua food brought by the Nie." "With it arrived miions of tonnes of fertie soi." "So where did it come from?" "The search upstream from Egypt and then up the white Nie staed at the Sudd." "This branch of the Nie is not the source of the great food..." "But there is an aternative... to return to Khartoum " "and take a different journey" "aong the Bue Nie." "Upstream from Khartoum, the Bue Nie fows through dry savannah." "Then, on the fringe of the Ethiopian Highands the river emerges from deep inside a gorge so steep and hostie that it has calmed the ives of many who have tried to expore the river further." "But the bottom of this gorge shows itte promise of a great food." "T's barren." "This is a tough pace to make a iving." "They're crossing the dried out river bed of the Bue Nie." "Right now it's no more than a tricke - just enough to warrant a trek of many hours to bring ivestock to drink." "But the huge bouders that cover the river bed suggest that at some time a powerfu force of water must fow through here." "The ammergeyer," "Africa's mountain vuture, seeks out those who succumb to the heat and the drought - in this bruta season the ammergeyer wi have penty to choose from." "Ethiopia hosts eighty percent of Africa's highest mountains - a egacy of the region's vocanic past." "Thirty miion years ago, a huge pug of moten vocanic rock weed up through cracks in the Earth's crust, then cooed and soidified to form the Ethiopian Highands." "Since then, erosion has carved the edges of this rocky dome to spectacuar effect." "And there is a surprise up here - in this arid and... a ake!" "...at neary two thousand metres," "Tana is Africa's highest." "Tana's hippos ive at a higher eevation than any other." "Coud Lake Tana be the eusive source of the Nies great food?" "The mere tricke fowing out of it doesn't ook promising." "But the rocks here te a different story... ony a raging torrent coud have carved these shapes." "Further up on the highand dome above Lake Tana, the and is simiary dry and barren." "Yet if the Bue Nie is responsibe for the great food, it must surey start somewhere up here." "These mountains might appear ifeess, but ook cosey and they are aive with rodents." "These moor ands support one of the highest densities of rodents on Earth - up to three tonnes of them in every square kiometre - something that has not gone un-noticed by other oca residents." "The Ethiopian wof, aso known as the Red Jacka, is a master rat-catcher normay..." "The parched vegetation gives very itte cover to the rodents - they have to risk it out in the open but it's not much good at conceaing a wof either." "The rodents aren't necessariy safe underground." "The wof has acute hearing, amazingy sensitive sme, and a narrow, stabbing snout fu of sharp teeth." "Danger's past, but they must aways be on the aert..." "Geada Baboons no monkey ives at higher atitude - they are found ony in these mountains." "They use the steep ciffs of the Bue Nie's gorge to provide overnight protection from eopards and humans." "N fact, the rodents have nothing to fear the baboons feed excusivey on grass the ony monkey that does so." "Maes use those teeth to intimidate rivas." "They ive in a compex ordered society of many hundred animas... t can be bittery cod up here." "Geadas shuffe whie feeding, to save energy - crucia with such a poor diet... t probaby stops their bare bottoms getting cod too." "This is a tough time of year they are forced to dig for roots." "How can such a pace provide the water for the Nie's great food?" "From June, moisture-aden couds from the congo basin coide with these steep mountains and the heavens open." "A metre of rain and hai fa in just a few weeks." "The Ethiopian highands are known as "Africa's water Tower"." "The roof of Africa can be a miserabe pace during its three month rainy season." "But the rain brings the mountains back to ife." "The rodents' word is transformed." "The ush vegetation provides them with as much food as they need, and cover from predators ike this Augur Buzzard." "Provided, of course, they see it before it sees them." "The soi here is vocanic." "That means it contains a rich cocktai of nutrients." "T was soi as fertie as this which nurtured the crops of Ancient Egypt." "With the pentifu rain and intense mountain sunshine, the grass here grows fast." "This expains why these highands can support such huge numbers of animas." "The rains are transforming the highands in another way." "Night temperatures can be ow enough to freeze any water in the ground." "As the ice expands, it breaks up the topsoi." "When the ice mets the next morning, the soi is eft crumbed and fine" "Miions of nest-making rodents oosen the soi further." "The highands are fu of peope, too." "They have expoited the rich soi here since the time of Ancient Egypt." "The rainy season turns the highands into a busy patchwork of farmand." "This is one of the argest and odest areas of cutivated and in Africa." "Nevitaby, this great bounty attracts unwecome visitors." "Ethiopian chidren pay their part in protecting the famiy crops." "The fute is payed to scare away animas at east that's one theory." "Sometimes more direct action is necessary." "The rains continue for up to three months." "T may appear beak, but in fact it's a time of ceebration and thanksgiving for the highand farmers." "They're accustomed to the yeary rhythm, and they see the rains as a bessing." "Beneath their feet, the and is undergoing one fina dramatic change." "The rain-sodden earth can hod no more water." "T spis out across the mountainsides, creating a host of tiny streams." "As they merge, the cargo of fertie soi driven downstream increases." "Streams become rivers." "Finay these rivers fow into the mountain bow that is Lake Tana." "The ake is fling up a the whie, creating marshand on its shores." "Here, weaver birds turn the fower heads of papyrus into buiding materia and they set about constructing a woven city over the growing ake." "Papyrus is one of the Nies great gifts growing aong much of the rivers ength it provides a strong waterproof buiding materia for expert craftsmen such as these." "The peope of the Nie have aso found it usefu for buiding." "The Ancient Egyptians even used it to make the paper on which they recorded the story of their great civiisation." "Peope here sti put papyrus to good use." "The design of these boats has changed itte since ancient times." "Tana has become a vast mountain reservoir for the Bue Nie." "The dissoved vocanic soi has enriched the ake." "T's good fishing for peope and animas." "T's thought that the Ancient Egyptians heard rumours of this ake, but they never reaised the critica roe it payed in their ives." "Every day peicans gather near the akeshore in response to especiay dense concentrations of fish." "But sometimes the fishing is easy." "The peicans aren't fussy about where their food comes from." "Fisherman's off cuts dojust fine as Lake Tana's peicans have earned." "Like the Ancient Egyptians, the peope of the Ethiopian highands know they must ive within the Nie's rhythm." "T can be good to them and give them a they need." "But it can aso turn on them and even threaten their ives." "Some years the food is so great that crops, ivestock and even homes are swept away" "Even though most highanders are devout christians, oder, pagan beiefs, with a deep connection to nature, sti survive here." "Discreet offerings are made to Gihon a river spirit." "Usuay, Gihon is asked for hep." "But if the food is too great, the spirit is begged for mercy." "More than sixty mountain rivers have fowed into Lake Tana, but ony one river fows out - the Bue Nie." "Vçirtuay dry just a few months ago, it has now become a very different river..." "The highanders ca these fas Tis sat." "T means "smoking fire"." "This, surey, is a force powerfu enough to carry the great food thousands of kiometers to the deserts of Egypt." "Gathering speed and power, the foodwaters sweep on into the Bue Nie Gorge." "We over a thousand metres deep, neary twenty kiometres wide and over six hundred kiometres ong, this is Africa's Grand canyon." "From a over the highands, other huge rivers pour into the Bue Nie Gorge." "By the time it eaves Ethiopia, the Bue Nie wi be fifty times the size it was in the dry season." "Now the Bue Nie is carrying a hundred and forty miion tonnes of fertie soi." "For a miion years, the Bue Nie has been carving this huge gash through the Ethiopian highands - grinding down the vocanic rock, grain by grain, to form the enormous gorge." "Finay, the Nie's great food spis out of Ethiopia and across the fat ands of Sudan" "t sweeps past Khartoum, ebowing the steady fow of the white Nie aside." "And on through the desert to revive and enrich the parched ands of Egypt." "Thousands of years ago this was the great food that aowed the Ancient Egyptians to buid a great civilzation." "But they passed into history without ever finding out where the riches they depended on reay came from." "The Nie has never given up its secrets easiy." "Next week... for centuries, mankind strugged to find the source of the white Nie." "T was this great prize that drew an army of exporers to Africa - men who were ambitious, dedicated, obsessed." "Their endeavours made them egends." "Doctor Livingstone presume." "And reveaed why a river that fows through a desert never runs dry." "From the heart of Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, runs the word's ongest river." "Since the Egyptians first setted aong its banks men have dreamt of discovering the pace where the Nie is born." "But for centuries the river kept its secrets cose." "The obsession grew and by the mid 19th century some were prepared to risk their ives to be the first to discover the source of the Nie." "Over a period of 3o years the Nie finay yieded." "T demanded a terribe price." "Many died or suffered horriby." "One man had the resove to finay piece together the puzze of the Nie." "He was Henry Morton Staney." "Doctor Livingstone sync Yes." "Meeting Livingstone changed my ife." "He was a remarkabe man - he inspired in me the determination to finish the work that he had begun." "From as ong ago as 5ooo Bc, when the first nomads setted aong the banks of the Nie, peope reaised that it was an extraordinary river." "Not ony did it offer a constant fow of water in the midde of the Sahara but it aso provided an annua food, which brought with it miions of tonnes of rich back soi." "Year after year, the fieds ining the banks of the river" "Nie were repenished with water and nutrients." "T's now known that this sediment-aden water came from the Ethiopian mountains down a huge tributary caed the Bue Nie." "This water, with its heavy oad of vocanic soi, thundered down the Bue Nie gorge into Sudan and then on through the desert to Egypt." "This miracuous food of water and sit was the powerhouse of the ancient Egyptian civiization." "But there is an even greater mirace." "Because here is a vast river that fows through 15oo mies of scorching desert yet never runs dry." "What coud be capabe of generating this much water?" "When at ast the source of the Nie was found it provided the answer but one that no one coud have foreseen." "Now, 'm an od man, surrounded by the comforts of home." "They've even made me a knight of the ream." "But do peope understand, wonder, the price we a paid, those of us who were drawn into this quest." "Was sixteen years od in 1857, and at ast free of that terribe workhouse." "That same year Burton and Speke were setting out for Africa." "This is centra Africa, gentemen, as we know it now, and as you can see the most interesting feature is this ake" " uniamesi - sometimes caed Tanganyika." "8oo mies ong and 3oo wide." "Estimated distance from the coast 9oo mies." "And that, gentemen is about a we do know." "Fear we're no wiser than the Ancient Egyptians." "We think, we think that this ake has sufficient atitude to be the source." "So there it is." "The Nie is somewhere within this area of 5oo mies." "And so it began." "The Roya Geographica Society was determined that an Engishman woud be the first to find the source." "They enisted the most intrepid exporer of the day, captain Richard Burton." "He chose as his companion, captain John Speke." "The junge seems infinite." "The atmosphere has corroded everything and food is at a minimum." "Every morning dawns upon me with a fresh oad of cares and troubes and every evening reminds me as it coses in that another and a miserabe morrow is to foow." "Their route took them first through thick junge, then into the dry heat of the open savannah." "Rather than foow the Nie upstream, which was reported to be impossibe," "Burton took the most direct route and struck inand from the East African coast." "Burton was the eader of the expedition," "Speke found it hard to take a subordinate roe." "Their reationship became increasingy strained and by the end they were barey on speaking terms." "T didn't hep that the journey proved more arduous than they had expected, and both men were continuay pagued by disease." "F one of us is ost the other might survive to carry home the resuts of the exporation." "Have undertaken the journey with the resove to do or die." "Burton fe prey to maaria, and Speke was amost bind with trachoma." "But after eight terribe months they reached their goa, the shores of Lake Tanganyika." "Arab save traders tod them of a river that fowed north from the ake and they went in search of it." "F this river proved to be the Nie, the prize was theirs." "But their provisions ran ow and the porters mutinied - they were forced to give up." "The Nie continued to keep its secrets." "Athough they had found Lake Tanganyika they had not been abe to prove that it was the source of the Nie." "Whie they rested in the sma town of Tabora, some Arab traders tod Speke about another great ake, an even bigger one to the north, and ony 2 weeks march away." "Burton fet that finding this new ake was outside the scope of his orders and showed no interest in it." "But Speke saw a chance for himsef." "Despite Burton's ack of enthusiasm he set off to the north with a handfu of porters." "He was about to make the discovery that woud guarantee his pace in history." "The vast expanse of the pae-bue waters burst suddeny upon my gaze... no onger fet any doubt that the ake at my feet gave birth to that river, the source of which has been the subject of so much specuation," "and the object of so many exporers." "Speke was convinced that here was the headwater that fed the Nie." "This ake's worthy of the Nie." "On my enquiring about the ake's ength, the man faced to the north, and began nodding his head to it;" "at the same time he kept throwing forward his hand, to indicate something immeasurabe;" "and added, that nobody knew, but he thought it probaby extended to the end of the word." "Speke coud see this new ake was arge but he had no idea that it covered an area of 26,5oo square mies." "More ike an inand sea, this is the argest ake in Africa." "Water evaporates from the surface, fas on the surrounding mountains, and then drains back into the ake." "This continua circuation of water means itte is ost to the equatoria sun - the ake hods water ike a vast reservoir." "Caim this ake for Engand and the crown, and name her Vçictoria after our gracious sovereign." "Speke returned to Engand ahead of the invaided Burton." "Though he had promised to wait, he reveaed his great discovery to the word and calmed the gory for himsef." "Now, if anyone woud ike to answer any questions." "Sir" "Though his news was greeted with excitement, his ack of detaied information generated some doubts at the Roya Geographica Society." "...regarding the ake you named Vçictoria." "You have not calmed to actuay have seen the Nie." "Of course, those who expore the word from their comfortabe armchairs are aways the first to carp." "'M very happy to announce that the counci have asked captain Speke to return within the year to centra Africa in command of a new expedition, whose object is to inspect the actua exit of the Nie from Lake Vçictoria." "The focus now switched from Lake Tanganyika to Lake Vçictoria." "Speke was joined by a young army captain," "James Grant." "Grant idoised Speke, and was prepared to foow him to the ends of the earth." "They navigated from the south of Lake Vçictoria around the western side in search of an outet." "The quantity of mosquitoes on the borders of the ake is perfecty marveous;" "the bushes, and everything growing there, are iteray covered with them." "As waked aong it's shores, disturbing the vegetation, they rose in couds, and kept tapping, in dozens at a time, against my hands and face, in the most disagreeabe manner." "The ake has an insect popuation unrivaed anywhere on Earth." "An extraordinary event is triggered during the rains by the new moon." "Nsect arvae ascend from the ake bottom to the surface to emerge as fies." "On their way up they have to run the gauntet of shoas of greedy fish." "Those that make it past the fish emerge at the surface, strugge free of their arva shes and rise up into the air." "There they join others to form vast breeding swarms." "N turn, the swarms merge to form immense couds comprising biions of fies." "Drawn by the fies, terns migrate here from Europe and gather in their thousands." "Unpredictabe winds often bow the fies ashore." "Athough Speke and his party found the fies irritating, they don't bite - they ony emerge to mate." "The party approached the northern end of Lake Vçictoria where Speke expected to find the outfow from the ake the beginning of the Nie." "By this time Grant was imping bady from an ucerated eg, but Speke woudn't wait." "He pressed on eaving Grant, bittery disappointed that he had been abandoned so near their goa." "On 28th Juy 1862," "Speke reached the point where water fowed out of Lake Vçictoria as a boling rapid." "The expedition had now performed its functions... and as had foretod, the ake is the great source of the hoy river..." "As far as Speke was concerned, this was the birthpace of the Nie." "And he named it Ripon Fas." "But in his haste to get there he had made a mistake - by eaving Grant behind, he had no witness with him who coud sience any critics back home." "Speke rejoined Grant and they set off downstream, panning to foow his river to Egypt, and prove concusivey that it was the Nie." "But triba wars bocked their route and so they were forced to eave the river and trave overand to the town of Gondokoro." "This diversion was critica because it meant that Speke coud sti not prove that the river fowing out of Lake Vçictoria was the river Nie." "By an extraordinary co-incidence they met with another pair of exporers in Gondokoro - a most unikey coupe to chance on in the heart of Africa." "Samue Baker had rescued Forence Vçon Saas from white save traders and had made her his wife." "They too were in search of the source of the Nie, but they were doing it the traditiona way by doggedy traveing upstream." "For a year they expored various tributaries of the Nie and finay reached the vast papyrus swamp known as the Sudd." "This had been an effective barrier to exporers through the ages." "But the Bakers had been ucky, somehow they had navigated the abyrinth of marshy channes in ony 4o days." "Nevertheess, in Bakers words, they had braved 'maaria, marshes, mosquitoes and misery' in these swamps." "N Gondokoro," "Baker earnt that Speke had apparenty discovered the source of the Nie at Lake Vçictoria." "We of course Baker was bittery disappointed, but he was reuctant to give up." "Then he heard about a third arge ake sti to be expored." "So off he went." "He hoped that a river as arge as the Nie coud have more than one source and that there was sti a chance for a share of the gory." "Once forced to trave cross-country, the Bakers soon found the going hard." "Forence coapsed with fever, their baggage animas died and their food suppies faied." "For ten months they suffered terriby." "Then, in March 1864 they finay found it the new ake." "The gory of our prize burst suddeny upon me!" "There, ike a sea of quicksiver, ay the grand expanse of water a boundess horizon on the south and south-west, gittering, in the sun... it is impossibe to describe the triumph of that moment..." "My wife who had foowed me so devotedy stood by my side pae and exhausted." "Baker named the ake "Abert" after Queen Vçictoria's ate consort." "Mpressed by it's size, it took itte to convince him that this ake, aong with Lake Vçictoria, was ajoint source for the Nie." "Now surey he woud share Speke's gory." "Anxious to return to Engand that season, they foowed the shoreine north expecting to sai down the river Nie, back to Gondokoro." "But something was troubing Baker it was the reationship between the two akes, Vçictoria and Abert." "Which had the higher eevation?" "Speke's figures suggested it was Vçictoria." "So when Baker found a river fowing into Lake Abert, athough 'm sure he wanted to go home, he knew he had to foow the river upstream to find the answer." "Less than twenty mies upstream from Lake Abert the Bakers had their answer." "The eevation readings now made sense and Baker surmised that Lake Vçictoria fowed down this river," "Speke's Nie, into Lake Abert." "Athough Baker was mesmerised by the waterfa, something ese caught his eye." "N the river at the bottom of the fas there was a concentration of surprisingy arge crocodies." "Never saw such an extraordinary show of crocodies." "They ay ike ogs of timber cose together, and upon one bank we counted twenty seven." "Every basking pace was crowded in a simiar manner." "The Bakers' strugge to expore the Nie had eft them bone weary." "They were out of provisions and they were suffering from maaria and other fevers" "t's itte surprise that they had no stomach for further exporation." "...if death were to be the price, at a events we were at the goa and we both ooked upon death rather as a peasure, as affording rest" "there woud be no more suffering no fever no ong journey before us," "the ony wish was to ay down the burden." "Far from home, in the grip of fever, the African night can pay tricks on the mind." "A mournfu cry just a bush baby." "These harmess itte creatures are doing no more than advertising their territories." "N the stiness of the night they can be heard for over haf a mie." "The Bakers pushed on to the pace where Speke had been forced to eave the river on his way downstream estabishing once and for a that" "Lake Vçictoria and Lake Abert were inked by the river that Speke was convinced was the Nie." "Like Speke the Bakers were hed up by the whims of a oca king and triba wars." "T took them a further six months to reach the safety of Gondokoro - their strugge home turning into an epic on the scae of their outward journey." "The Bakers had confirmed that a river fowed out of Lake Vçictoria to Lake Abert." "And it became generay accepted that this was the Nie." "But there were others who thought differenty." "Lake Tanganyika had sti not been rued out as a possibe source and Dr David Livingstone, who supported this theory, was asked to resove the issue." "Was thirty years od in 1871 when my newspaper sent me to Africa." "Suppose had something of a reputation for bringing home stories that peope wanted to read." "And this story was one of the biggest." "Five years earier, Livingstone had set off for Lake Tanganyika, but amost nothing had been heard of him since." "He was ost somewhere in the dark heart of that frightening continent and most peope presumed him dead." "But after 236 of the hardest days had ever known found him." "Dr Livingstone presume." "Yes thank God Doctor that have been permitted to see you." "Fee thankfu that am here to wecome you." "He was the most extraordinary human being that ever had the privlege to know and it's no exaggeration to say that the man changed my ife." "He was sti convinced that Lake Tanganyika woud prove to be the source of the Nie." "F the ake's outfow headed north into Lake Abert, his theory might yet prove to be correct." "Put my considerabe resources at his disposa, and together we expored the northern end of Lake Tanganyika." "But Livingstone's hopes were dashed when we discovered that the river there fowed into not out of the ake." "On that trip we never did find the ake's outfow." "Had to return home, the word was waiting for news." "You must forgive me if have not tod you before, you have done what few men coud do, far better than some great traveers 've known." "'M very gratefu." "F gave you this, and 've nothing ese in the word to give, woud you consider it as a memento of our eave taking?" "Bombay" " Prepare them... kwende, kwende..." "Staney never saw him again." "Livingstone died 14 months ater." "His oya African servants brought his body back to zanzibar and the doctor made his fina journey home." "Staney was not yet an exporer ike Burton, Speke or the Bakers - he had arrived in Africa a newspaper man ooking for a story." "But there is no doubt that" "Livingstone had a huge impact on his lfe." "He had taught me that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance character." "Standing by Livingstone's coffin had reaised that it was my duty to continue the work he had begun." "The extent of Lake Vçictoria was sti unknown and Lake Abert, according to Baker seemed to be equay vast." "Sound the advance." "Staney had no choice but to circumnavigate and map a three akes:" "Vçictoria, Abert and Tanganyika." "Ony then coud he finay sette which was the main feeder for the Nie." "Staney bypassed the scientific institutions and persuaded his newspapers to fund this huge enterprise." "He set off once more from zanzibar in 1874, a genera at the head of an army of porters." "Peope who have no conception what such an expedition entais have sometimes caed me ruthess, bruta even." "But to me there's ony one judgement woud accompish what set out to do?" "He circumnavigated the vast Lake Vçictoria and was abe to confirm that Speke's Ripon Fas was indeed the major outet." "Speke had now the fu gory of having discovered the argest inand sea on the continent of Africa." "With Lake Vçictoria finay setted," "Staney set off towards Lake Abert but his route too was bocked by warring tribes." "He turned south to Lake Tanganyika to cear up its roe in the Nie's story." "T was good to know that was competing Dr Livingstone's work." "After charting Lake Tanganyika, foowed its outfow west, but it proved not to be the Nie." "T was a river that fed the congo, and for 999 days foowed that great river to its mouth in west Africa." "The question of the Nie was sti not yet fuy understood." "Ten years ater" "Staney found himsef heading back towards the Nie." "Ony this time he approached from the west, through the dense tropica forests of centra Africa." "...if the ightning severs the crown of a proud tree, and ets in the sunight, then the race for air and ight causes a mutitude of baby trees to rush upward." "They crush and strange one another, unti the whoe is one impervious bush." "Untracked junge is pitiess terrain to move through." "Began with eight hundred men, but our casuaty rate was high, and many deserted." "Think came as cose as have ever come to knowing despair on that terribe journey." "...not every person has the gift of finding his way in a forest." "Within 2oo yards any man woud be hard pressed to find his way back to the pace where he started." "Sometimes we woud cover ony 4oo yards in an hour." "Nevertheess we pressed on." "Now and then troops of monkeys bounded with prodigious eaps through the branches, others swung by ong tais a hundred feet above our heads, and with marveous agiity they hured their tiny bodies through the air across yawning chasms." "Then they rested for an instant to take a ast ook at our ine before burying themseves out of sight in the eaves." "Then we hit the marshes." "...thick scum-face quagmires green with duckweed into which we sank knee-deep, and the stench from the fetid sough was sickening." "The forest coud never sustain the needs of so many men and the peope who ived in its depths were suspicious of us, and often woud not trade, taking us for Arab savers." "Most of our food, certainy our stape of rice, we had to carry with us." "Meat was in short suppy." "Hunting hippo, crocodies, buffao and eephant proved unsuccessfu..." "Even though an anima may have been ony a few feet off on the other side of a bush, it was impossibe to obtain a view of it through the impervious mass of vegetation." "Finay, they emerged from the green He of the forest near the western edge of Lake Abert." "Abert was now known to be much smaer than the Bakers had optimisticay drawn on their maps." "But Staney discovered yet another ake, a itte further south, which he named Edward after the Prince of waes." "T was cear to me now that there was a famiy of akes and waterways that must feed the Nie." "There was no singe source." "These akes created one enormous reservoir system for the Nie." "T's no wonder that its such a great river." "Of course, there remained one fina mystery." "Where was the water coming from to fi a these akes?" "Saw a pecuiar shaped coud of a most beautifu siver coour, which assumed the proportions and appearance of a vast mountain covered with snow... it dawned on me that this must be the Ruwenzori had discovered the ong ost Mountains of the Moon..." "The Mountains of the Moon, so caed for thousands of years, sit between the humid forests of the congo basin and the monsoon ands of East Africa." "Ruwenzori, the oca name, means 'rainmaker' and for much of the year they're shrouded in dense mist." "No wonder so few white men had ever seen them." "The atitude of the mountains attracts couds from both east and west... and this steady suppy of water, trickes down on both sides of the range into" "Edward and Abert, and a third ake" " George feeding the headwaters of the Nie." "But these mountains are more than just an interceptor of rain." "They contain the fina secret of the Nie's steady fow and strength." "This word of ice, moss, forest and bog, acts as a reservoir, sowy reeasing the rain." "At the base of the mountains ie enchanted forests." "Mosses, iverworts, ferns and ichens carpet the ground and enveop the trees, heping to reguate the reease of water." "The Ruwenzori's gaciers drip feed the bogs which, together with the forests, feed mountain streams, rivers and the great African akes." "Frozen at some 16,5ooft above sea eve, it is the Ruwenzori's gaciers that provide a steady suppy for the akes, that power the Nie on it's" "4ooo mie journey to Egypt." "His African days over," "Staney setted in Engand." "He was eected a Member of Pariament and in 1899 was knighted." "We had a sought a definitive answer, a bubbing spring or a singe ake where we coud pant a fag and say 'here is the source of the great Nie!" "'" "But the truth, as it often is, was more compicated." ", and a those who'd gone before me," "Burton, Speke, the Bakers, Livingstone, we had a done as much as was humany possibe with the resources avaiabe to us." "We woud have to ook to future generations for the fina answer." "T woud take another 1oo years of scientific research and discovery, boosted by huge technoogica advances, before the origins of the Nie were fuy understood." "Between 1o and 15 miion years ago movements in the Earth's tectonic pates caused a vast pateau to rise in East Africa." "T stretched some 6oo mies across and to neary one mie high." "At this stage there were no arge, we-defined akes in the region and certainy no great river fowing north." "As the pateau rose, fractures deveoped aong its fanks - these fractures in the Earth's surface form what we now ca the African Rift Vçaey." "About 12 miion years ago, the Mountains of the Moon began to rise as a bock near the western arm of the rift and by eight miion years ago the maturing rift vaeys began to coect water." "The akes of George, Edward and Abert deveoped, but the water never broke out of these akes into a permanent major river." "Then, ess than one miion years ago the centre of the vast pateau sagged a itte." "This sight depression began to pond with water and deveoped into what we now ca Lake Vçictoria." "At the end of the ast gacia period, when huge quantities of water were reeased from the retreating ice, a very wet phase in Earth's cimate foowed." "Over thousands of years the akes fied up, and then about 12,5oo years ago, an event occurred which was to change the fate of mankind forever " "the water in Lake Vçictoria spied north." "The Nie was born." "This new river found a route west to Lake Abert." "From there, with a huge boost from the waters now pouring out of akes George, Edward and Abert, the young Nie burst north." "This vigorous river cut a route over hundreds of mies before entering the fatands of Sudan." "Here, within this vast marsh, the spirit of the river was tamed and steadied." "T emerged into the northern deserts strong and reiabe." "Finay it was joined by its sister, the sediment-fied Bue Nie." "The two Nies, now one, brought the gifts of water and nutrients into the desert of Egypt." "The stage was set for the birth of a great civilzation... t began just 7ooo years ater."