The Nile

May 15, 2014
Gently meandering tour of the Nile River in the company of a deeply knowledgeable guide.To understand the cataclysmic changes gripping Egypt at the moment, eminent British Egyptologist Wilkinson (The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, 2011, etc.) urges a return to the heart of the country, the Nile, the source of the country's economy, spiritual beliefs and political structure. He moves from Upper Egypt to Lower, starting at the First Cataract, which, until the completion of the High Dam at Aswan in 1964, would send torrents of water from the rains flooding the plains in mid-summer, inundating the fields not just with water, but fertile silt, renewing its annual fecundity and connecting all the settlements along the way. Measured by a rock-cut Nilometer, which allowed the earliest governments literally to plan the year's budget and wealth, the floods gave rise to the agricultural richness of the region from prehistoric times. The Nubian trading centers near Aswan, the Jewish community that once thrived on Elephantine Island, the great Pharaonic civilizations, and Ptolemaic and Roman periods-all of these civilizations required the ferrying of people and transport of goods and building stones from the quarries. Thanks to later visitors like Napoleon, Scottish painter David Roberts, tour operator Thomas Cook, Victorian tourist Amelia Edwards and amateur archaeologist Lord Carnarvon and others, Egyptian treasures have been revealed and preserved, though also sadly removed from the country. Wilkinson's erudition is marvelously nuanced-e.g., when he points out how the tomb workers in the village of Deir el-Medina near Thebes went on strike, during the reign of Ramesses III, thus holding the government accountable in what was certainly one of the first instances of civil awareness.From Aswan to Cairo, encompassing deserts and oases, Wilkinson proves to be a pleasant, nondidactic and always-informative travel companion.

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June 1, 2014
A descriptive descent of the Nile, from Aswan to Cairo, Wilkinson's travelogue fascinatingly blends the historical and the contemporary to underscore the eternal truth about Egypt, its absolute dependence on the Nile's waters. An able writer (The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, 2011), Wilkinson enriches his observations with those of Western visitors since Herodotus, biographically digressing into their awestruck interests in Egyptian antiquities. Regularly contrasting their sketches and his own observations, Wilkinson unveils continuities in the depth of the Nile's historical time. Start with what he regards as the Nile Valley's most significant monumentno, not Karnak or the pyramids but rock-cut steps near Aswan. They are the Nilometer, the key to Egypt's fabled wealth; they measured the Nile's annual flood. Water's vital importance to Egypt for millennia surfaces repeatedly in Wilkinson's pleasingly paced presentation, materially as the means of transportation and agriculture and also spiritually in ancient Egyptian religion, Wilkinson's commentary about whose pantheon underscores motivations of divine propitiation behind the construction of pharaonic monuments. From its archaeological past to its populous present, Egypt has a marvelously acute expositor in Wilkinson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014

As he takes us down the Nile, from the Blue Nile-White Nile sources in Ethiopia and Lake Victoria, respectively, through the Valley of Kings and on to exploding Cairo, celebrated Egyptologist Wilkinson also gives us a tour of Ancient Egypt (emphasizing its gods and rulers) and the archaeologists who have uncovered its secrets.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014

"The key to Egypt--its colorful past, chaotic present and uncertain future--is the Nile," explains Wilkinson. Folding together geology, archaeology, cartography, and literature, the Egyptologist takes readers on a journey past villages, towns, and cities, encountering dazzling ancient monuments and eastern deserts, all the while sharing a deep appreciation for and understanding of the Nile's vast waters and histories. (LJ 1/14)

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.