Toby Wilkinson - The Nile A Journey Downriver Through Egypt’s Past and Present

ALSO BY TOBY WILKINSON

Early Dynastic Egypt

Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt

Genesis of the Pharaohs

Dictionary of Ancient Egypt

Lives of the Ancient Egyptians

The Egyptian World (editor)

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2014 by Toby Wilkinson

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies. Originally published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury Publishing, London.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Chapter illustrations are from The Nile; or, Glimpses of the Land of Egypt by W. H. Bartlett (1849).
Other images are from the authors own collection unless credited otherwise.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilkinson, Toby A. H.
The Nile : a journey downriver through Egypts past and present / by Toby Wilkinson.First American edition.
pages cm
Originally published by Bloomsbury, London, in 2014.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-385-35155-3 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-35156-0 (eBook)
1. Wilkinson, Toby A. H.TravelNile River. 2. Nile River ValleyDescription and travel. 3. Nile River ValleyHistory. 4. EgyptCivilization. I. Title.
DT 116. W 55 2014
962dc23 2013045874

Jacket photograph: The Cheops pyramid at Giza, Egypt, during a flood of the Nile, ca. 1875, by Antonio Beato. Adoc-photos / Art Resource, N.Y.
Jacket design by Isabel Urbina Pea
Maps by John Gilkes

v3.1

For Umm Toby

Egypt is an acquired countrythe gift of the river.
HERODOTUS

Egypt is always herself, at all stages in her history.
JEAN-FRANOIS CHAMPOLLION

The country is a palimpsest in which the Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over that.
LUCIE DUFF GORDON

Egypt is the most populous country in the worlds most unstable region. It is the key to Middle East peace, the voice of the Arab world, and the crossroads between Europe and Africa. Its historical and strategic importance is unparalleled. In short, Egypt matters. Understanding the country and its people is as vital today as it has ever been.

The key to Egyptits colourful past, chaotic present and uncertain futureis the Nile. More than two thousand years ago, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus famously remarked that Egypt is the gift of the river, and so it is. Egypt is the Nile, the Nile Egypt. The river is the unifying thread that runs throughout Egyptian history, culture and politics. It has shaped Egypts geography, controlled its economy, moulded its civilisation, and determined its destiny. From Egypts earliest art (prehistoric images of fish-traps, carved into cliffs overlooking the river) to the Arab Spring (fought over on the bridges of Cairo), the Nile has been central to Egypts story. Throughout the country, the connections between past and present are many and deep. Travelling down the Nile, past villages, towns and cities, dazzling ancient monuments and ambitious modern developments, is the best way to feel the pulse and understand the unique character of this chaotic, vital, conservative and rapidly changing land.

As I write this, in a boat on the Nile, Egypt stands at the most critical juncture of its recent history. With a past longer than most countries, its future has never looked less certain. Its first democratically elected leaderin five thousand yearshas assumed dictatorial powers. Parliament and the courts are at loggerheads. Islamists and secularists are fighting (and dying) over radically different visions of Egypts future. The balance of power in the Middle East and the entire trajectory of the Arab world rest on the outcome. The world holds its breath.

Yet with the sunlight sparkling on the water, waves lapping gently at the sides of the boat, herons wading in the shallows and fishermen casting their nets in mid-stream, there is a timelessness to life on the river that belies the momentous events sweeping the country. Political Egypt seems a world away, a distant sideshow. Rural life continues much as it has for millenniasowing and harvesting in the fields, fishing on the Nile. The river and its rhythms, not the pronouncements of politicians, are the measure of peoples lives. As one Victorian traveller to Egypt remarked, There is a sense that transcends the passage of years or the stirring events of history. The visitor to the Nile can smell the same smells as the Ancient Egyptians, of hot dust and damp reeds, of the river itself as it flows smoothly toward the north.

In a country heavy with history, the continuities and interconnections of Egypts past and present are particularly visible along the Nile. The same stretch of water along which I am now passing has conveyed pharaonic battleships sailing south to crush rebellions in Nubia and returning laden with the spoils of battle; barges carrying great obelisks from the granite quarries of Aswan to the temples of Thebes; Ptolemaic grain-ships and Roman troop-carriers; papyrus skiffs and Cooks Nile steamers. On the banks, satellite dishes sprout from the roofs of mud-brick houses, churches and mosques jostle for space with the ruins of pagan temples, and men in galabeyas ride donkeys while talking on mobile phones.

Egyptians are acutely aware of their rich inheritance. They could not fail to be, with physical manifestations of their past all around. A common complaint about the Muslim Brothers is that they are ignoring Egypts long history of diversity and accommodation. As an Egyptian friend put it, They think we forgot the last seven thousand years; we didnt. In an attempt to comprehend the enduring influence of those seven thousand years, this book sets out to tell the story of Egypt from the vantage point of its great river. Down the millennia, disparate periods, places and people have been united by the common experience of the Nile. Together, their stories weave the history of an entire countrya country in flux, a country that demands to be understood.

By the time this book is published, Egypt may have resolved its current crisis and charted a new courseor it may still be in limbo. It may have embraced democracy or it may have reverted to its more accustomed tradition of autocratic rule. For the vast majority of its long-suffering and resilient people, life will continue as before, a daily struggle to make ends meet, put food on the table, nurture the next generation. Amidst all the uncertainties, the Egyptians know they can count, as they always have, on the Nile. Its steady flow is the heartbeat of a nation, and its life-giving waters offer the eternal promise of a better future.

Since I finished the first draft of this book in December 2012, events in Egypt have unfolded rapidly and violently. Everything has changed and nothing has changed. In the postscript, I reflect briefly on the situation at the time of going to press.

TOBY WILKINSON
The Nile, Egypt
December 2012