Loading summary
Transcript73 lines
- [00:02]
Narrator
This show is sponsored by Liquid iv. From the builders of the Taj Mahal
- [00:06]
Sponsor Voice 1
to traders on the Silk Roads, from sailors crossing oceans to crews carving the first railways through mountains, history is full of people doing thirsty work under the sun. Thankfully for the rest of us, staying hydrated is a little easier. Whether you're traveling out in the heat or just enjoying summer without running out of steam, staying hydrated is Easy with Liquid IV's Hydration Multiplier. Just one stick and 16 ounces of water hydrates faster than water alone. Powered by Liv Hydrocytes, it's an optimized ratio of electrolytes, essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients that turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration.
- [00:44]
Narrator
Keep a stick in your bag or
- [00:45]
Sponsor Voice 1
backpack and stay hydrated while you're on the go this summer with Liquid IV. Tear pour live more go to LiquidIV.com and get 20% off your first purchase with code short history at checkout. That's 20% off your first purchase with Code Short History at Liquidiv.
- [01:07]
Narrator
It's 3 August 1858. British army officer John Hanning Speke is pushing through a humid forest in what is now Tanzania in central Africa. It has been a hard weeks long hike through Arab trading posts and unfriendly territory and it's not getting any easier. The incline makes each step tougher than the last as he and his men march deep into the continent's high ground. Speke both looks and feels older than his 31 years. Beneath his thick blond beard and ragged clothing is a man barely surviving. He's exhausted, half deaf from stabbing a beetle in his ear canal and even his eyesight is faltering, a side effect of malaria. And yet he persists years into his overall mission. With local porters by his side, Speke brushes aside greenery, hoping with every step for a glimpse of the promised blue waters he's searching for. Emerging from the jungle into a plantation flattened by elephants, he pauses for a few moments. His ribs still ache from the 11 spears he received in Somaliland in a camp attack that gave his fellow explorer Richard Francis Burton a cheek to cheek skewering. Burton is now out of action 200 miles to the south, struck down with syphilis after much local promiscuity. And deep down, Speke is glad to be the last man standing. Because if his guides are correct, the waters should be right over the next hill. This moment belongs to him. After just a few minutes more walking, it comes into view. The blue blur of a vast ocean like lake stretching right to the horizon. As Far as his poor eyes can see, and he instantly knows it, this is the source of the White Nile. Pursued by Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon, but now found by John Hanning. Speke, alone by hippopotamus, bathes in the distance. A zebra wades into the shallows. Speke leads his porters down the slope to the water's edge and tells them to enter the lake too, to shave their heads and soak, baptize even in these holiest of waters. But the men don't speak English and they loathe his arrogance, so they ignore him. But the only people whose respect he really cares about, however, are those back in London. He needs to act fast. Just as his guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, orders men to explore the lake, Speke stops him and sends them instead to return south to tell Burton, the old fool, of their findings. Bombay mumbles his dissent, warning Speke not to be hasty. If this is the Nile's source, they must find the river leading out of it. But Speke has already made his decision. He didn't come all this way, charging ahead of his partner just to dawdle once his great discovery was made. The way he sees it, this is the greatest river on earth and his ticket into the history books. The longest river in Africa and maybe the world. The nile snakes across 4,000 miles through 11 African countries, discharging 80 billion gallons of water daily. It supports animals from crocodiles to rhinos to hippos, 200 species of fish and a quarter of a billion people. In its development of ancient Egypt, this waterway was perhaps the birthplace of civilization itself. But how have humans tried to harness this river? And why have so many failed so bloodily? What of the religions and cultures that have grown from the Nile's waters? And how has it drawn emperors, prophets, explorers and engineers to its banks? And to what end? I'm John Hopkins from Noiser. This is a short history of the River Nile. Tens of millions of years ago, the Earth's tectonic plates show shift. Mountains are forced up, forming today's Ethiopian highlands in East Africa. In the north, the ground is pulled down. When the rains come, this vast channel fills, sending each drop of water on a three month long journey from mountain to sea. Unusually for a river, the Nile moves from south to north. But then again, the Nile is no ordinary river. In its first high section, it is a tale of two rivers. The White Nile and the Blue Nile meet at what today is Khartoum in the northeast African nation of Sudan. The southern strand, the longer White Nile gains its name from the pale clay sediment it brings from the Great Lakes in the heart of Africa. This branch is a slow, steady river. But to the east, its wilder sibling, the Blue Nile, is narrower, faster, and carries 85% of the Nile's water from Ethiopia's Lake Tana. Robert Twigger is author of 15 history and travel books, including Red A biography of the world's greatest river.
- [07:00]
Historian/Expert
The Nile is so important to our cultural history, but also, of course, it's physically extremely important to Africa. I mean, it drains about a quarter of Africa, ends up eventually going down the Nile. So that's an incredible idea when you think of an entire continent.
- [07:20]
Narrator
The Nile is crucial to the whole of its basin. But as the Greek scholar Herodotus, known as the father of history, puts it, Egypt is the gift of the Nile. Without the river, there is no ancient Egypt. Tribes begin to settle around the Nile Delta many millennia BC and start to explore its agricultural opportunities. With a water supply to irrigate the land, hunter gathering societies can develop a farming culture. It is even fertile enough here to produce a food surplus. And the climate is kind to North Africa, too. At this point, the Sahara is green, lush with lakes and woodlands, a far cry from the desert we know today. But its people are drawn to the river. Settlements become capitals that prosper on the riverbanks, like Memphis in the north, where the Nile opens out into a splay of wetlands that eventually meets the sea. Later, Thebes becomes Egypt's capital, 500 miles to the south on a sedimentary plain at a bend in the river. But the secret to Egypt's success lies at the opposite end of the Nile. Egypt's boom time in the few thousand years BC is down to the rainwater hurtling thousands of miles from the south.
- [08:44]
Historian/Expert
One of its most mysterious aspects, which the writers of antiquity all noted, was the Nile is in flood in the summer, it has heavier waters in the summer, and it gets lower in the winter, which is the complete opposite of every other river that they'd experienced throughout Europe and pretty much throughout the world. Because what happens is the monsoon that comes into Ethiopia. That downpour creates the Blue Nile.
- [09:14]
Narrator
These torrents shoot water down the Blue Nile with such velocity that when it meets the White Nile at Khartoum, it can force the water of its southern twin upstream. Further north, the floods become oddly predictable. So as the deserts dry out, the Egyptians become the first to try to tame the nile. From around 4,000 B.C. and in part, they succeed. Their system of basin irrigation uses dams and dikes designed to send the Inevitable seasonal deluge. Where it's needed, the farmland is prepared in a web of man made canals and ditches. Then all the ancient Egyptians have to do is wait for the flood.
- [10:01]
Historian/Expert
And at some point it became obvious that this flood that came in the summer enabled you to harvest three crops a year. So suddenly you had a surfeit of food.
- [10:13]
Narrator
They make lock gates for the canals, allowing release when they want, or for more directed irrigation. A bucket and pulley system known as a shadouf can lift water out of the canal and send it into the fields. The soil remains saturated long after the water would otherwise recede. And it's not just the water that makes the difference.
- [10:35]
Historian/Expert
The silt comes down the Nile every year, a huge amount of silt. So you've got a natural fertilizer going over your flooded fields which as soon as they've dried, lies on top of the field. So you've really got the most perfect system for agriculture that you could imagine. I mean, no carting of wheelbarrows of fertilizer and nonsense like that. Everything's done for you. And then you get a three month break when the water is all flooded. You can sit back and relax and live off the surpluses that you have created through your three harvests.
- [11:09]
Narrator
The crops thrive, from grains to beans to vegetables. And there is enough of them to feed between 2 and 12 million people a year. With an excess of crops comes a proliferation of trade with locals dealing in wheat, flax and papyrus. And the area is no longer just a collection of smaller communities. It's a land united by its reliance on the river, the food it brings, the commerce and transport that connects people into settlements and settlements into a country. By 3000 BC, the Nile has made Egypt the world's first recognizable nation state. The Egyptians build not just what they need, but what they want to demonstrate their superiority and might. Near the city of Thebes, whose ruins can be found within the modern day Luxor, is the Nile's Khufu branch, now long since vanished thanks to the shifting sands and a current forceful enough to change its own course. The Khufu is crucial to the region's unique architecture because on this stretch of water, colossal stones and materials are sailed on barges to construct the pyramids that will far outlast the dynasties that rise and fall like the river itself. With no Nile, these wonders of the world would simply not exist. And the river does rise each summer, with the rain peaking in September and receding in October. The nutrient rich silt it leaves is the Egyptian economy's Magic ingredient. The annual flood means three seasons each year. Inundation, growth and harvest. But that is when it goes to plan. It won't be until thousands of years later that the flow is truly tamed. In the time of the pharaohs, too much water means whole villages are wiped out. Too little, though, spells famine, like the great megadrought of around 2200 BC, which brings three centuries of food shortages. No wonder, then, that the Nile becomes the subject of myth built into the region's religion.
- [13:20]
Historian/Expert
Like all mythology, it's really an encoded explanation of the relationships and the importance of various elements in the life of ancient Egyptians. So basically, the sort of desert God was set, and he was being dethroned as they moved more towards the Nile. And in his revenge, he constructs this lead coffin for a party. It's a pretty crazy story, but all the other gods are asked to try the coffin for size. Of course, he's secretly got the measurements of Osiris, his brother, who he really dislikes. And Osiris perfectly fits the coffin. And being a lead coffin set, shoves it straight into the Nile and it sinks to the bottom. And Osiris dies. And Isis, who is Osiris's wife, is so upset, she sheds a huge amount of tears. And those tears become the flood of the Nile.
- [14:14]
Narrator
Ultimately, wherever this water has come from, it is where it's going that matters. The floodwaters are measured using nilometers, vertical columns charting the water's depth. Priests are tasked with monitoring the levels and charting the data to predict the flood's arrival and announce it when it does come. So crucial is the quantity of water that taxes are set according to the amount of water expected. If a good harvest is coming, locals will be richer and therefore can withstand higher taxation. The nilometers don't just monitor the height of the water, but also its color. Thanks to the silt, the river runs red, something that's maybe referenced in stories from another religion.
- [15:02]
Historian/Expert
One of the famous biblical plagues was that the Nile would become red with blood, and this could be possibly a reference to that. People had observed the reddening of the Nile at the junction of the white and blue Nile. Moses of the Hebrew Bible. According to Josephus, his name, Mo, is a river, and sez means saved by Moses was saved by the river.
- [15:27]
Narrator
Like the infant Moses saved from Pharaoh's wrath, the infant Jesus and his family use the Nile as a means of escape. King Herod's massacre of the innocents is retold in the nativity story with the paranoid king's plans to destroy the rumored Messiah. In this time of peril, Mary and Joseph journey through Egypt as refugees. Their supposed stops along the Nile still form a pilgrimage route today. By the time of Christ, Rome is expanding. Keen to exploit the Nile and its agricultural benefits, Emperor Julius Caesar forges links with Egypt's equally famous ruler, Cleopatra.
- [16:13]
Historian/Expert
That's the connection to the modern era, because Julius Caesar, by marrying Cleopatra, becomes the ruler of Egypt. And at that time Egypt was considered the prime colonial outpost of the Roman Empire because it had such a huge supply of grain. It was because of the Nile, because of the flood and the several harvests. It was a great source of grain for the Roman Empire, which needed it to expand. And so that relationship with Cleopatra became very important. There are literally so many sort of megastories that are compacted into the single narrative of the Nile. It's rather amazing.
- [16:57]
Sponsor Voice 2
Recently I've been looking to upgrade what I wear day to day, leaning into pieces that feel easy and comfortable. For example, I've been searching for a pair of shorts that not only work well in the gym, but also have that quality and durability for everyday use. And I found exactly that at Quints with their performance tech shorts. These shorts do double duty with just the right amount of stretch and comfort, designed to move with you in the gym or around the house. Did you know that Quince has all the wardrobe staples for spring? Think 100% European linen shorts and shirts from $34. Lightweight, breathable and comfortable, but still look put together and clean. 100% Pima cotton tees with a softness that has to be felt. Their pants also hit that same balance. Relaxed and comfortable, but still polished enough to wear pretty much anywhere. Everything is priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen, so you're getting premium materials without the markup. So refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use head to quince.com shorthistory for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com shorthistory for free shipping and 365 day returns for quince.com shorthistory
- [18:16]
Narrator
this
- [18:16]
Sponsor Voice 1
is a paid advertisement from Indeed. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break. Hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy when the pressure's on and you need the right hire. This is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Sponsored Jobs boosts your job. Post in search results so you can reach the people that help your business thrive. Plus, with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, you only pay for results. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Hiring this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs
- [19:20]
Narrator
Further south in the land of Nubia, between Egypt and today's Sudan, water is more scarce and more crucial. But great kingdoms have already been and gone beside the river. Here, the city state of Kerma prospered in the few millennia before Christ and the kingdom of Cush, sufficiently powerful to split from Egypt, extended 2,000 kilometers along the river from the shallow, boulder strewn cataracts of the Nile near Aswan all the way to Khartoum. But though many crave ownership of the Nile, it is still too long for any one power to dominate. The mighty Romans may now control the northern Nile, but even such a great empire has its limits. It finds them further south in the sudden that names today's Sudan. The word means barrier, and to the troops and tradespeople lost to its swamp, it truly earns its name. The marshes bar Rome from pushing south, leaving the sud to local tribes like the Dinka and Nua people, nomadic groups who live off the land. They treasure cattle above all else and lead them around the region to graze while their warriors sometimes fight each other for territory. But though they struggle to find peace between themselves, they learn to live with the temperamental Nile. The Dinka people see the origin of humanity itself in this river. The first woman, they say, was impregnated by the river spirit, the singular ancestor. And thanks to the impassable terrain, there are few outside intruders. But it's a different story in the north. Up in Nubia, Roman, then Christian and Greek influences dominate from the 4th century. Further north, towards where the river empties into the Mediterranean, a new religion arrives in the seventh century. Urged on by power struggles and military activity, Bedouins from Arabia are drawn to the Nile's banks. Their many dwellings, pitched together, become known as the Metropolis of the Tent. Near the Byzantine outpost of Cairo Their arrival heralds the introduction here of Islam. And under their influence, Cairo becomes a city of world renown. In their occupation, they too look to the Nile still rising, falling, flooding and watering the land. And around 1000 AD, a new leader sets his sights on damming the river. A dam he believes could offer greater control over agriculture and the power to create an abundance of water when it's wanted and stop the flooding when it's not. One of the area's most notorious leaders, Caliph Al Hakim, starts reading up on how it can be done. He comes across an account by Ibn Al Haytam, one of the great Islamic geniuses, an expert in mathematics, engineering and astronomy. Unfortunately, one day this great polymath misspeaks claiming that he could dam the Nile, theoretically unlocking the bountiful possibilities of irrigation for all of Egypt. But for the tyrant caliph Al Hakim, a theory is as good as a promise
- [22:51]
Historian/Expert
to build a dam that wide at the top without any form of mechanical assistance. Ibn Haytam did some back of the envelope calculations and realized that he needed million men for 200 years. That's not the answer that a dictator wants to hear, you know. So he went back and this is a sort of bizarre strategy, but it was correct. He didn't want to be killed, so he pretended that he'd gone mad. And Islam is particularly generous and charitable to people who are mad. You're not allowed to kill them, for one thing. And so Hakim had to hold back on executing Ibn Haytam. So Ibn Haytam there had to continue his charade of madness for many years, in fact, 10 or 12 years locked up in a room. He then began to study optic, discovered the camera obscura, which may have been remarked upon before, but he was the first person to sort of describe it mathematically and really founded the subject of modern optics as we know it. So it's a really, really odd way in which the Nile ends up contributing to science.
- [24:00]
Narrator
In the end, Al Hakim dies and the great river Nile remains undamped, uncontrolled. The river keeps rolling and sometimes plays a much more sinister part in the lives of those who live beside. Is May 2, 1250, and in a riverside palace by the Nile, a long table is heaped with the finest delicacies Egypt has to offer. The the city's best musicians play as the feast gets underway and the wine begins to flow. In the center of it all is the arrogant young Sultan Turans Shah. He has crushed the Crusades, imprisoned Louis IX of France, and is throwing a celebration in his own honor. It's the end of his first six months of power, but it will also be his last. As women dance for him, Turanshah throws food to his favorite slaves and punches to his least favorite. Nearby stand the men he has recently promoted to bodyguards or advisors. There are those who say he should instead have rewarded the mercenary Mamluk clan who helped him defeat the Crusaders. But Turansah does not like being told what to do. He bangs on the table to demand more wine. But just then, a muffled scream comes from outside. At the open doorway stands one of Turansah's finest commanders, Baibars, destroyer of the Crusaders. But as the commotion outside grows, rather than rushing outside to defend his master, Baibars fixes Turan Shah with a stare and draws his sword. Because he is an unrewarded Mamluk, just like those who pour in unimpeded behind him, blades pointed. Furious, the Sultan gets to his feet as Baibars now approaches. Turansar raises a hand to stop him, but his trusted commander lunges over the table and impales it, screaming in pain and disbelief. Turansar stares at his pierced hand, then at the onslaught of warriors, and realizes this is an uprising he can't stop. So grasping his bloody hand with the good one, he dodges the treacherous guard and runs for his life, escaping with nothing. He needs swift sanctuary outside the palace. He quickly chooses one tent in a long row standing alongside the Nile and bursts in. The trader inside barely has time to recognize this uninvited guest before he sees the mess his dripping wound is making. Turansah follows his gaze to the red streaks behind him. A blood trail to lead his pursuers to him. He can't stay here. So Turansah flees further down the Nile's path, slipping on stones that drop down to the river. He can hear the Mamluks close behind. He's not going to be able to outrun them. Can he reason with them after all? Overlooking the river looms a stone watchtower. Could this be a hiding place? Or maybe there will be some friendlier guards here, Men whom he could persuade to see reason. Faint now from the blood loss. He staggers towards it and climbs one handed up the ladder. But on reaching the top, there is an unnatural warmth. And then he sees the flames. They've set the tower on fire. He must escape again. Scalded, he scrambles back down, his pursuers mere yards behind him. Now he stumbles to the river, desperate for water to cool his burns. He's still on the shore when a new agony rips through him, a thrown spear piercing his ribs. He lurches forward, drops to his knees, and he's in the water. Then the arrows begin. He is struck. And again. Deeper. He wades. He shouts an offer to resign, hands raised, blood streaming down one arm. But when he sees Baibars enter the water, drawing his knife, Turansah knows it's over. Mamluk soldiers join them, knee deep. And as the blades connect, the red, silted Nile becomes redder. Turansah's heart is taken as a gift to the imprisoned King Louis ix. The rest of him is a banquet for the River Nile's insatiable crocodiles. Thanks to their uprising, the Mamluks go on to rule Egypt for 300 years, overseeing a period of cultural growth and centralization around the Lower Nile. But they are ultimately defeated by Ottoman Turks and absorbed into their empire. And other powers thirst for the Nile's waters too. Like the Roman emperors centuries earlier, in the late 18th century, Napoleon Bonaparte is obsessed with the Nile, its source, and the ancient history of the regions it flows through. His passion combines with a desire to disrupt the British and ultimately drive them out of India. But if he wants to do that, he has to control Egypt.
- [29:30]
Historian/Expert
Napoleon arrives in Egypt, but he doesn't just want to conquer the country economically or politically. He also wants to learn from Egypt. And this is really the beginning of the European fascination for ancient Egypt. His fate is sealed with the Battle of the Nile, which is at the headwaters of the Nile. Nelson arrives and defeats the French very quickly.
- [29:57]
Narrator
The battle is the culmination of a Mediterranean cat and mouse game between British and French fleets. And Nelson's victory sees him given the title Baron of the Nile. But while Napoleon is defeated, he leaves many scholars in Egypt busily researching and excavating, starting a new field of study, Egyptology. While reinforcing a fort during the conflict with the British, a few miles from the Nile, a French soldier makes a crucial discovery. The Rosetta Stone is an ancient slab that helps unlock the mysteries of hieroglyphics, intensifying Western interest in Africa's hidden treasures.
- [30:42]
Podcast Host
Starting or growing your own business can be intimidating and lonely at times. Your to do list may feel endless with new tasks and lists can easily begin to overrun your life. So finding the right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything as a built in business partner can be a game changer for millions of businesses. That tool is Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Gymshark, Rare Beauty and Heinz to brands just getting started, Shopify has hundreds of ready to use templates that can help you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand's style and you can tackle all the important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics and more. No need to save multiple websites or try to figure out what platform is hosting the tool that you need. And if people haven't heard about your brand, you can get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you with easy to run email and social media campaigns to reach customers wherever they're scrolling or strolling. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com realm go to shopify.com realm that's shopify.com realm
- [32:08]
Sponsor Voice 3
it's time to refresh your yard during Spring Backyard Days at the Home Depot. Get low prices guaranteed on propane grills starting at $179 like the next grill 3 burner gas grill or get $50 off a select Weber Spirit Grill and bring big flavor to your backyard. Then set the scene with Hampton based drinks lights that bring it all together. Shop Spring backyard days for seven days at the Home Depot. Now through May 6th. Exclusions applies to homedebo.com Pricematch for details.
- [32:37]
Narrator
Control of the river remains center stage, but the first serious attempt to dam the nile comes from Egypt's energetic new leader Muhammad Ali. In the 1830s. He plans for a barrier to slow the flow at Cairo, retaining water to allow year round irrigation, limiting famine and flood. But the question is, where will you find the stone to build it? Easy, he thinks. Demolish a pyramid. Fortunately, the plan becomes too expensive and the last surviving wonder of the world is saved. But halfway down the continent at the other end of the Nile, the British are coming. Amazingly, by the mid-19th century, the river's source remains uncharted. Many have tried to find it and failed, halted by the unpassable marsh of the Sud. Maps of the time show a mystical mountain range in the heart of Africa. Snow capped high ground that surely sends water down the White Nile. But finding the real source becomes increasingly appealing to Westerners with eyes on Africa's money making opportunities. Whoever finds the source can perhaps control the water, control the commerce and grow an empire to avoid the marshland. European explorers now enter from the east coast but find no such mountain range. There are individual mountains but no signs that the Nile begins there. What they do find are rumors of Great Lakes. So attention shifts to this new theory. Could a central lake be the river's source? And if so, where? It falls to a former soldier of the British East India Company to find out.
- [34:31]
Historian/Expert
The first real expedition is Burton, who's this incredible Victorian explorer. A polymath multilingual. He'd been involved in various attempts to go to Forbidden Cities. He went to Mecca. He was the first Briton to go to Mecca in disguise. He also went to the forbidden city of Harar.
- [34:51]
Narrator
Richard Francis Burton once met, is not easily forgotten. Described by the writer Bram Stoker as a steely looking gentleman, Burton is nonetheless a worldly, knowledgeable man, skilled in 29 languages and fascinated by each culture he encounters. His employer is the Royal Geographical Society, but ultimately he only ever works for himself and the world is his workplace. On his quest for the Nile's source, Burton takes a younger explorer, John Hanning Speke, a blonde devil may care aristocrat. The pair set out as allies, but unbeknownst to Burton, as the years of their expedition go by, Speke begins to see him as a rival.
- [35:45]
Historian/Expert
Burton, unfortunately was sick. I mean, this is sort of a kind of morality tale. Don't get ill when you're on an expedition if your number two is more ambitious than you are. So his number two was this character called Speke, who was nothing like as talented as Burton, couldn't speak any foreign languages, hadn't really traveled many places apart from India and England. But Speke was healthy and strong and he pushed further north and found Lake Victoria.
- [36:11]
Narrator
Speke leaves Burton to recover from his latest illness and travels north with their guide, Sidi Mubarak, Bombay. He is led to the vast body of water and knows that he's done it. The high ground and size of the lake is all he needs to determine that this is where the Nile begins. Speke is imperialistic and brash, lacking Burton's instinct to gather evidence and appease locals. And though it's known here as Naenza, Namloiwe and others, Speke is unimpeded by the absent Burton, who tends to respect and retain local names. So he renames it Lake Victoria after his queen, then rushes back to tell the older, wiser, and now furious and envious Burton. The senior explorer plays down Speke's accomplishment and chooses not to visit the lake. But while Burton stays on to explore the east coast, Speke hurriedly books an early boat back to Britain. The pair had agreed to present to the Royal Geographical Society together. But Speke rose back on that, telling anyone who will listen that he has found the Nile source in Lake Victoria. And while the Royal Geographical Society request further exploration for more evidence, they largely believe him. Burton arrives home incensed
- [37:37]
Historian/Expert
when Speke decided to betray him and sort of turn against him. Burton really gave him both barrels in terms of debate, and Speke was feeling a bit guilty because of course he knew that he had made this agreement and that he really did owe all his prominence to being selected by Burton for the expedition. So when they came to debate, Speke was really quaking in his boots.
- [38:03]
Narrator
In 1864, in Bath, Burton and Speke agree to settle the matter in a public discussion. Their preliminary meeting is uneasy. Speke's backers perhaps have been encouraging his blinkered attitude. But faced with his old ally, it's possible remorse creeps in. At last, out shooting one afternoon ahead of the debate, he is seen to disappear behind a stone wall. There is a single shot and Speke, survivor of countless attacks, diseases and perilous adventures, dies at his own.
- [38:45]
Historian/Expert
There's a lot of sort of controversy about whether he committed suicide because he was just so ashamed of having to face and really lie about what had really gone on between him and Burton, because Burton had kept records of the letters and so on, or whether it was a sort of willed suicide in the sense he was so downcast, he really wasn't paying attention because he was known to be an extremely good shot. And Burton, of course, to his credit, was absolutely distraught because even though he was a ferocious man in the debating chamber, he was really rather a softie and he felt terribly, terribly guilty that possibly he contributed to the death of Speke.
- [39:24]
Narrator
The explorations continue into the 1860s and 70s, with notable British explorers David Livingstone, then Henry Morton Stanley finally proving Speke right, or near enough. Lake Victoria, or a feeder river into it, is considered the source of the White Nile. But to many, it's Burton who is most deserving of recognition.
- [39:49]
Historian/Expert
History has looked favourably on Speke and slightly neglected Burton. Burton was a great writer and his book the Lake Regions of Central Africa became a handbook for later explorers. So really, Burton was a key figure there.
- [40:06]
Narrator
Burton and Speke's guide, Bombay, is recognized by London's Royal Geographical Society for trekking the African continent from east to west, and assists Stanley in his search for the missing Dr. Livingstone. From Source to mouth, Britain's interests soon dominate. The Nile occupying Egypt in 1882, then Uganda and Sudan in the mid-1890s. The entire river is now Controlled for the first and only time by one nation. With that control comes the trade, irrigation and power that has flowed down the dynasties for centuries. Yet truly harnessing the power of the water itself remains elusive from then on.
- [40:53]
Historian/Expert
It's a case of a sort of mounting interest in damming the Nile once the British arrive. Basically because the cost of building the Suez Canal is so great, it more or less bankrupts Egypt. And Britain uses that as a method of stepping in and taking control of Egypt. And once the British are there, they become very keen on improving the efficiency of agriculture and all of these things. And you've got all these engineers who've been busy draining and damming parts of India who suddenly think, oh, we can do the same thing here. And so that's really the start of this push to finally dam the Nile.
- [41:31]
Narrator
In 1902, the dream becomes a reality with the opening of the first Aswan Dam. Devised by British engineer Sir William Wilcox. This modern wonder of the world is completed in just four years, a full year ahead of schedule. It is the largest masonry dam on the planet and it helps feed and water Egypt's booming population. Thanks to year round irrigation, the flood can be controlled and the dry season is no longer dry. And though it comes at a high price with the submersion of an ancient kingdom, it brings with it a new tourism. It's a warm winter's day in early 1933, and the luxurious steamer SS Sudan is chugging upriver from Luxor. Its captain, an elderly Egyptian, gently steers the ship's wheel to circle a 3,000 year old temple one more time. He is rewarded with cries of delight from the wealthy Europeans on board as they escape their cold season for a month or more. They are here to savor Egyptian culture, the most fashionable on the planet. A decade since Tutankhamun's tomb was opened, the tamed Nile welcomes western wallets at a sedate five miles an hour. The era of the cruise has begun. Yet the captain knows they will only see half the story, because beneath the ripples lie statues, kingdoms and lost deities. They finally chug on from one temple in search of another. Beneath this water lies the legendary resting place of Osiris, ancient God of agriculture. So feared that it was said fish would never swim near his temple. Now they swim in it. The new dam is here, but the old gods are gone. Up ahead, the vast man made Aswan Dam comes into view. To the astonishment of the passengers, this new temple of modern ingenuity is being built still taller. One traveler, an archaeologist explains to another that not enough water is being retained so the level will rise even higher, swallowing with it even more of the old world. As they Sail on, the captain's favorite passenger approaches the wife of the archaeologist, one Mrs. Agatha Christie. She asks him question after question about the landscape here and what lies beneath the surface. Research, she tells him, for a book she's writing. The conversation is interrupted by the passing of a tugboat carrying crates of cargo. The captain calls out a greeting and explains to the writer it's destined for one of the luxury hotels cropping up on the Nile's banks. A waiter comes along now with drinks for the tourists. After taking a glass for herself, the writer points excitedly at the bank, spotting a hippo and then a graceful pair of white crane like egrets standing in the shallows. Silently, the Egyptian captain and the English writer observe the wildlife and what's left of the historic views. Soon her novel about this place will send even more tourists here. But happily, despite the river's sometimes bloody past, the deaths on her Nile are fictional
- [45:14]
Sponsor Voice 4
chronic migraine 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more, can make me feel like a spectator in my own life. Botox Onobotulinum toxin A prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It's the number one prescribed branded chronic migraine preventive treatment.
- [45:32]
Sponsor Voice 5
Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including als, Lou Gehrig's disease, Myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eaton syndrome and medications including botulinum TABLE Toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.
- [46:08]
Sponsor Voice 4
Why wait? Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-844botox to learn more. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola in original and cherry
- [46:18]
Podcast Host
vanilla that Pepsi taste you love with
- [46:21]
Sponsor Voice 4
no artificial sweeteners and 3 grams of prebiotic fiber. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola Unbelievably Pepsi if the
- [46:30]
Narrator
first Aswan Dam is brought about by the arrival of the British, the second Aswan Dam Half a century later is inspired by their departure after 1952's Egyptian revolution. Its new leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser looks for concrete ways to signal the country's bright future. And while the old Aswan Dam sought merely to slow and gain greater control over the Nile, his newly independent Egypt needs bolder plans.
- [47:00]
Historian/Expert
Once the British were kicked out in 1952, Nasser, who was the new leader, any ideas that were unpopular to the British were naturally going to be more popular with him. And he was looking around for a big, big project.
- [47:15]
Narrator
The high Aswan Dam certainly fits the bill. Intended to replace the earlier dam, which doesn't retain enough water, the new construction will be built for Egyptians by Egyptians. But when American and British money dries up, Nasser turns to the Soviet Union for funds. After its completion in 1970, Egypt gains year round irrigation, hydroelectric power and finally an end to the annual flooding cycle. But it comes at the cost of Nubian heritage, as tens of thousands of people are relocated to create Lake Nasser, one of the world's largest reservoirs. And the holding back of the Nile's nutrient rich silt leads to coastal erosion further north and a disruption of the ecosystem elsewhere. In the 1970s, the Nile's darker history gains another chapter in Uganda, where dictator IDI Amin uses the river's crocodiles to dispose of his enemies. The 20th century ends with the ambitions of Egypt's new president Mubarak to divert the Nile through Egypt's desert. The hope is that the desert will bloom again as it did thousands of years previously.
- [48:33]
Historian/Expert
So that fantasy of diverting the Nile is pursued by Mubarak in the 80s and 90s and it's called the Toshka Project. And right up until the late 90s, the idea was to drain Lake Nasser into this sort of second river and it would bring life and a new vitality to Egypt. But you know, you start building canals in the desert and you get massive evaporation and the irrigation is going through areas that can be up to 40 degrees in the summer. And then it just fizzles out and we hear nothing more of it until the Egyptian Revolution 2011, when Mubarak is all his dreams of power are ended and again the river triumphs. You can mess with it to a certain extent, but beyond that at your peril, try to interfere with the Nile, you come to a sticky end.
- [49:27]
Narrator
But the large scale projects continue. Ethiopia's tekeze dam of 2009 and its grand Renaissance Dam, still under construction raise the possibility of international disputes. What happens to your neighbor when you turn off the taps. To this day, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia argue about the filling of reservoirs, the damming of the Nile, and the future of how to live sustainably alongside the river.
- [49:58]
Historian/Expert
It's definitely an instructive parable in living with nature. I think in the past, people had a greater awareness and acceptance of man's limitations. Then in the 20th century, hubristically, we could ignore it because we were able to interfere. I mean, Churchill famously said, wouldn't it be fun to send a Nile diving into some engine turbines as it leaves Lake Victoria? You know, that's a thought that fills most people with horror. Now, the idea that the most interesting thing you can do to a river is chuck it through a power turbine. So now we've got a much greater ecological understanding of the river. The more you mess around with it, the more you realize how interconnected it is.
- [50:35]
Narrator
For centuries, the Nile has been believed to be the world's longest river, although recent remeasuring of the Amazon may put it into second place. But the precise length doesn't matter so much as what the river brings and has brought for thousands of years.
- [50:51]
Historian/Expert
But of course, the Amazon is not as culturally significant to us. If you think about Egypt as the cradle of civilization, along with the sort of Tigris, Euphrates, and then every subsequent cultural innovation, if you like, through religion and science and literature and so on, they all have referenced or been connected to the Nile in some way. So it's really a sort of mains cable of our history in some curious way.
- [51:19]
Narrator
Today, satellite images of Africa at night demonstrate the extent of human reliance on the river, a line of electric light illuminating the Egyptian Nile. In a region otherwise dark, settlers are still drawn to it like moths to a flame. As to its future and our changing relationship with our environment, only time will tell. For now, the unstoppable Nile rolls on from Africa's heart, through swamp and floodplains, past cities, tents and temples, before finding freedom at last in the sea.
- [51:58]
Historian/Expert
If there is a message or metaphor, it is. There's a sort of parallel to our greater understanding of how we fit into the world, you know, and how the river itself might even be thought of as an organism in its own right. And we finally maybe are respecting that and at least understanding it much better than we did before.
- [52:28]
Sponsor Voice 1
Next time on Short History of we'll bring you a short history of the French Revolution.
- [52:35]
Historian/Expert
This is a colossal moment. You can't overestimate the importance of this because this is ordinary people entering onto the stage of history, taking matters into their own hands. It was an example of people being out on the streets and fighting and what that means the good and the bad.
- [52:53]
Narrator
That's next time.
- [53:00]
Podcast Host
I am your host, Stassi Schroeder.
- [53:02]
Sponsor Voice 4
Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast.
- [53:05]
Podcast Host
What's the most unhinged thing of season three? Steven because he's so evil, I do
- [53:11]
Historian/Expert
think he is misunderstood.
- [53:12]
Podcast Host
You see everyone face consequences.
- [53:14]
Sponsor Voice 4
It's intoxicating. The writers just know how to trick ya. There's always a twist in this show.
- [53:19]
Historian/Expert
It's nothing you would expect.
- [53:21]
Sponsor Voice 4
Tell Me Lies, the official podcast now streaming and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies on Hulu and Hulu on Disney. Hey, Mama. Thanks for making all my favorite recipes. Hi, Ma.
- [53:36]
Narrator
Thanks for your unfiltered advice.
- [53:39]
Sponsor Voice 4
Hi, Mom.
- [53:40]
Narrator
Thanks for always being by the phone.
- [53:42]
Sponsor Voice 4
Hey, Mom.
- [53:43]
Historian/Expert
Happy Mother's Day.
- [53:44]
Sponsor Voice 4
When you ship UPS Air at the UPS Store, your items arrive on time or your money back guaranteed at no extra cost. Exclusively at the UPS store US retail locations. Visit the upsstore.com airshipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply. Send your Mother's Day gifts at the UPS Store and we'll get your gratitude there on time.