For Egyptian farmers and fishermen，the Nile is not just a beautiful view, it is a gift, without which there could be no Egypt, o

For Egyptian farmers and fishermen, the Nile is not just a beautiful view, it is a gift, without which there could be no Egypt, only a scorched wasteland. In a country which does not receive much rainfall, the river is their livelihood. It covers only four percent of the country but its banks are where almost all of the 67 million Egyptians live. The Nile irrigates corn crops and citrus orchards, and provides water for herds of cows and for doing the laundry. Its seasons are the rhythms of the Egyptian way of life; when it floods every July, locals move to higher ground until it subsides three months later.
        The waters of the Nile flow for nearly seven thousand kilometers, from the jungles of Uganda through the deserts of Sudan to arrive at Cairo, Africa’ s largest city. For centuries, no one knew where it began, and the whereabouts of its source was a legend and a quest—a dangerous one, as the Nile contains crocodiles—and intruders into the heart of Africa were often not welcomed by the natives. The source was finally discovered in the mid-nineteenth century.