If the River Nile could tell Egypt’s story…

If the River Nile could tell Egypt’s story… It would be a flowing narrative written in antique blue-green ink, flecked with sunlight and tinged with the rust of gods and kings. The longest tale ever told, filled with twists and turns... running the length of a valley unrolled like a papyrus scroll. A story of fertile genius and momentous structures raised in a vainglorious struggle against death. Only around ten metres deep on average, yet a source of fathomless mystery. The Nile was ancient Egypt's superhighway. Artery of life. Their internet. Everything to them. It was the spine of Egypt and the many temples like jewels strung along its length the backbones of Osiris, murdered god of resurrection. This was hydraulic Egypt. Water carried them and carried all their trade and building materials for pyramids, temples and tombs as well as golden treasures. Great boats and barges navigated the river. There must have been accidents. What lost treasures lie buried in the silt beneath the Nile? And what treasures lie hidden alongside the present day Nile? While the Nile's course was largely constant over the millennia, it did migrate, changing banks by several kilometres in a net shift to the east. The Khufu, branch named after the Great Pyramid builder, was an arm of the Nile now vanished. It once ran right up to Saqqara and allowed the builders to float stones to the base of the pyramids and build the monuments. Impossible without it. The lost Ramesside city of Tanis in the Delta, was abandoned after the Nile shifted 15 miles from its original site at Per Ramessu and was later lost itself to the encroaching sands. Ghost Niles and ghost channels hold many secrets.

Murders on Egypt's ancient river of mystery with fiction's archaeologist detective. Visit Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)