泛滥之谜 03

The Nile's influence as a lifeline in the desert

Stretches a long way south from Egypt

Onwards into Nubia, now part of northern Sudan.

For over a thousand kilometres

The Nile is the only source of life in a forbidding desert

Known as ''The Belly of Stones''.

For millennia, there have been human settlements here

On this green strip clinging to the banks of the Nile.

But it's a man-made oasis

Extending only as far as farmers can pump the river's precious water.

Animals have also benefited from this transformation

of barren desert into lush paradise.

These, the rivers original inhabitants

Have witnessed more than one civilisation born of the Nile.

These pyramids are the tombs

of the so-called ''black pharaohs'' of the Nubian Kingdom of Kush.

They too harnessed the Nile's riches

And were at one time powerful enough to rule their Egyptian neighbours

A thousand kilometres to the north.

But unlike the Egyptians

Little is known about their mysterious culture and language.