泛滥之谜 25

Finally

The Nile's great flood spills out of Ethiopia and across the flat lands of Sudan.

It sweeps past Khartoum, elbowing the steady flow of the White Nile aside.

And on through the deserts to revive and enrich the parched lands of Egypt.

Thousands of years ago

this was the great flood

that allowed the Ancient Egyptians to build a great civilisation.

But they passed into history without ever finding out

where the riches they depended on really came from.

The Nile has never given up its secrets easily.

Next week.

For centuries, mankind struggled to find the source of the White Nile.

It was this great prize that drew an army of explorers to Africa

men who were ambitious, dedicated, obsessed.

Their endeavours made them legends.

Doctor Livingstone, I presume.

And revealed why a river that flows through a desert never runs dry.