The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes ambient background
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The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes backdrop

The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes

The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes
★ 7.2/10•2019•45m•NR•Documentary
Similars

The historian explores the land that inspired her passion for the past by embarking upon a 900-mile journey along the river Nile and examining how it shaped ancient Egypt.

Bettany Hughes · Writer

Caterina Turroni · Director

StatusEnded
Runtime45m
LanguageEN
First Air DateJun 14, 2019

Episodes

Episode 1 - The MouthE145m

The Mouth

Bettany visits the Nile's mouth, before boarding a 'dahabiya' that will take her upstream. South of Cairo she explores some tunnels under a collapsed pyramid to find the earliest known hieroglphic writing.

Jun 14, 2019

Episode 2 - The RiverE245m

The River

A hundred miles south of Cairo a stretch of the Nile was once considered Egypt's main highway, used by Cleopatra to travel the country. More than 2,000 years after her, Bettany visits a vast desert catacomb where tens of thousands of mummified animals were once left as an offering. Further upstream, there is a chance to swim in the Nile, and look inside the tombs where Tutankhamen's discoverer, Howard Carter, first got hooked on Egypt. Bettany explores the longest tomb yet found, before heading to the Dendera temple, where Cleopatra herself may have once wowed her lover Julius Caesar.

Jun 21, 2019

Episode 3 - The BanksE345m

The Banks

Bettany visits the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor where, for 500 years, the Ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings, among them the boy-king Tutankhamun. However, the historian crosses the local hills to the Workers' Village, where generations of skilled royal tomb-builders lived. As it turns out, they also dumped masses of domestic rubbish, which is now giving some insight into the highs, lows and preoccupations of ancient Egyptians. Bettany then heads south on the Nile's oldest steam ship SS Sudan, which inspired Agatha Christie to write Death on the Nile.

Jun 28, 2019

Episode 4 - The SourceE445m

The Source

The historian reaches the southernmost stretches of the Egyptian Nile, though her 900-mile journey is not quite over as she joins archaeologists as they extract a giant stone message board from the foundations of the temple of the crocodile god Sobek. Bettany also visits a hotel once frequented by Churchill and says farewell to her boat crew. After reaching Egypt's border with Sudan where Rameses the Great built an outrageous temple to himself, the presenter joins the crowds to witness the power of the rising sun.

Jul 5, 2019

Actors

Bettany Hughes

Bettany Hughes

Self - Presenter

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