Red Nile: A Biography Of The Worlds Greatest River, Twigger - B -, Inc.

                                               Red is for all the bloodshed along its extraordinary length: 4175 miles. If the Thames were as long, it would flow into the Arabian Sea. The White Nile flows out of Lake Victoria and provides 95% of the water in the river in the winter and the Blue, which is further north and west flowing out of Ethiopia, 85% in the summer. It was the Nile River valley that was the exit from Africa used by the first homo sapiens to head north.  And it was along its annually flooded banks that civilization began.  Those banks remained untamed until the last century and were the foundation of the ancient world's largest source of wealth. Wealth attracts predators, first the Greeks and later, the Romans. "There is every reason to believe that the Roman rule of Egypt, from 45 BC until the arrival of the Arabs in the seventh century, was an effective pillaging of the country from which it never really recovered." The Arabs brought a new religion, created the modern city of Cairo and introduced a tremendous amount of new knowledge to the world. They maintained much of Greek culture and brought it to the west, and they developed medical, astronomical and scientific skills centuries before the Europeans.  Finding the source of the Nile became the ambition of generations of Europeans.  The Blue Nile's source was discovered by a Jesuit missionary, Pedro Paez, in 1621. The White Nile was a bit tougher, as it lay deep in the dark continent. The first failed attempt that we know of was by  centurions sent by Nero in the first century AD. It was not found until 1937, by a German explorer, Dr. Burkhardt Waldecker. The dream of damming the river was partially accomplished by Muhammad Ali in the 19th century, furthered by the British in the early 20th century and finalized by Nasser in  1970.
                                               I find it very hard to finish a book written in the stream of consciousness mode. When a section of a book mentions Herodotus, Napoleon, Agatha Christie and Anwar Sadat, I call it a day. Nonetheless, there's a ton of fascinating information in this book.