The Nile: Downriver through Egypt's Past and Present by Toby Wilkinson

By Farah Nayeri 21 March 2014

It is the longest river in the world -- stretching 6,650 kilometers through the continent of Africa -- and without it, one of the world's greatest civilizations would never have existed. As Toby Wilkinson writes in his new book, "Egypt is the Nile, the Nile Egypt."

Wilkinson, an Egyptologist from Cambridge University, has produced a fluidly written book that blends contemporary description with digestible doses of history and anecdote from the time of the Pharaohs to the present day. The book is made timely by a reference to recent events: the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, and the election and subsequent removal of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, described as Egypt's first democratically elected leader in 5,000 years. Though Egypt has "a past longer than most countries," writes Wilkinson, "its future has never looked less certain." As ever, the Nile "will be a vital reassurance."

The Nile has certainly been nurturing Egyptians since the beginning of time, and attracting innumerable non-Egyptians, too. Though the river covers less than one-twentieth of the country's surface area, it sustains more than 96 percent of the population. Once Egypt becomes a fashionable travel destination in the 19th century, adventurous Europeans  -- including Florence Nightingale  -- make the trip downriver on dual-masted house-boats known as dahabiya, which are charming, if occasionally vermin-infested. The river is thought to have such miraculous powers that credulous Europeans hoping for twins or sextuplets pay dearly for a jar of its water.