Original subtitles

For 5,000 years this land, Egypt,

and the epic civilisation it gave birth to

has been shaped by one thing more than any other.

This awesome river.

The River Nile.

The Nile helped temples to rise...

...Pharaohs to rule...

...and pyramids to be built.

Without the Nile, there'd have been no ancient Egypt.

So I'm making the historical journey of a lifetime.

A 900 mile adventure along the Nile across the whole of Egypt.

I'll explore Egypt's greatest achievements...

It is truly wonderful, isn't it?

...and find treasures hidden for thousands of years.

Oh, my God. That's a sheer drop down there.

This is my chance to travel this fabulous land...

Oh, lovely.

...and experience it as the ancient Egyptian's did...

"from the River Nile.

From Pharaohs to slaves, from facts to fantasies,

I want to explore first hand

and to understand how this river shaped

one of the world's first and greatest civilisations.

Join me as I uncover 5,000 years of history along the River Nile.

I'm almost 600 miles into my journey up the Nile...

...and all along the way,

I've been given the warmest of Egyptian welcomes.

Hello. Hello. Good luck. Hope you have a good day.

Betanny! Betanny! Salaam. Salaam.

Showing kindness to strangers is a huge part of Egyptian culture.

Thank you. You're welcome.

It looks like a lovely breakfast. Isn't this amazing?

Wherever you go, the people on the banks invite you

to come and share their food. It is such a beautiful thing.

And of course Egypt's hospitality has been matched

by the wealth of its epic history.

I'm now on the final leg of my journey,

where arguably the river is at its most beautiful,

and you can explore ancient Egypt at the very height of its powers.

I'm now well past the famous sites of Luxor,

and heading to the intriguing treasures of southern Egypt.

In beautiful Aswan, with its island temples.

I'll have to say goodbye to my lovely dahabiya boat...

...before crossing the Aswan Dam to end my journey

on the shores of Lake Nasser, at the world famous temple of Abu Simbel.

30 miles north of Aswan, though,

I'm enjoying the familiar rhythm of life on the river.

But there was a time when the locals

wouldn't have looked quite so relaxed near the water's edge,

thanks to the presence of a ferocious predator.

If I'd been sailing down here at the time of the ancient Egyptians,

all these banks would have been thick with crocodiles.

I mean thousands and thousands of them.

And this was a huge problem for the people who lived on the river.

Crocodiles have now been hunted out of existence here,

but for ancient Egyptians who travelled on the Nile,

fished in it, swam in it...

...and drank from it,

there was a constant threat lurking just beneath the surface.

The Egyptians were very clever

and they knew that they had to keep their enemies close,

so they ended up actually worshipping crocodiles.

And sometimes they were kept in temples,

they were dressed in jewellery

and we're told that they were given wine and cakes to eat.

In fact, the Nile's ultimate predator inspired my next stop.

Kom Ombo.

This temple was built towards the end of the ancient Egyptian era,

2,300 years ago, by the family of Cleopatra...

...and it was here that the crocodile-headed god Sobek was worshipped.

So there he is with his human body.

Very realistically done. He's got lovely knobbly knees.

But that mad crocodile head and his sceptre, his staff of power.

But I'm here because, for the past year,

a team of archaeologists has been working

to save Kom Ombo from rising water,

which threatens to damage the temple and its foundations.

It's given the team an amazing chance to dig through layers

and layers of Egyptian history.

So I've made my way round to the back of the temple.

This is the outside wall.

And the reason I'm here is that I've had a call

from one of the archaeologists working here

to say that they've just discovered something rather exciting.

The mission is being led by archaeologist Dr Abdul Moneim Saeed.

Hi. Bettany. Nice to meet you. How are you doing?

Welcome here in Kom Ombo. So what have you found?

During their digging on the other side over there,

they found a group of steles.

So, like big stone... Big stone. ..slabs.

And we have just uncovered eight of them.

Can I come and have a look? Of course, why not. Thank you.

Steles were like giant stone message boards

used to make public announcements,

so I'm hoping these finds might reveal something new

about life here in ancient Egypt.

How amazing.

Don't know if you can see, it's an enormous slab of stone.

And the slab is not alone.

For some reason, several steles, some in pieces,

had been buried beneath the wall of the temple.

You had no idea these were down here?

No. No idea. How brilliant.

Looks like a seriously dangerous job down there because...

Can you tell how much this weighs? What do you think?

Almost three tonnes. Three tonnes? Yes.

Oh, that's exciting. Very exciting.

We're going to be the first people to hear what it says

for 2,000 years. of course, yes.

Amazing and so tantalizing.

What are you going to tell us, stone?

It's like it's kind of teasing us.

And nine feet below ground level,

the dig is turning up more than just the stele.

There's a confusing mix of treasures here,

including more recent Roman pottery.

Why's the pottery here?

Why has it ended up underneath the stele?

The steles that are here were dumped here.

Dumped here, yeah. That's really interesting.

So because this is late-Roman pottery,

but it's underneath the stele level,

that shows us that the stele must have been just put down,

dumped for some reason.

So it starts out life as a work of art, this,

and it looks like it's ended "P

as just a bit of a construction material.

Poor old stele. I'm glad you're happy with this, though. Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

Beautiful.

It seems that all these intriguing artefacts have been dumped here

to help support the foundations of the temple.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

Because the idea of that coming down on people's arms,

it's actually... My heart's in my throat watching them,

because it's so perilous,

and these men, they've been doing this all their lives.

So they're experts.

They are strong men who have good experience.

Not just the strength, both of them together.

Strong and wise. Exactly. That's how we like men.

THEY LAUGH

So I've just seen the top of the steles.

I recognise those inscriptions. Oh, my God.

Not just hieroglyphics, but it has a scene. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

So you've got hieroglyphs and a scene. Oh, my God. Exactly, yes.

Amazing.

Now out of the ground,

it's clear that two broken pieces actually fit together...

...allowing an ancient stele to be reformed

after thousands of years in the dirt.

THEY CHANT IN OWN LANGUAGE

Great to see that. I love it.

I love the fact that they are loving the rescuing of this thing

from the earth.

But what we don't know is what our ancient stone stele

may be about to reveal.

Just a stone's throw from the Nile at the crocodile Temple of Kom Ombo,

I'm watching as a team of archaeologists

excavate a giant stone stele.

These were public message boards, the press releases of ancient Egypt.

And I'm about to be one of the first people in over 2,000 years

to see what's written on it.

So slowly, slowly the hieroglyphs are coming out.

Look at the detail on that.

Is it painted? Yes.

The remains of colours.

This is amazing. The paint is still on it.

All of the colours, they come from nature.

Plants, the trees, thorns mixed in with water...

...covered by honey to be very bright.

I'm blown away by the paint.

I've never seen it come out of the earth like that before.

It's unusual to find them still in a good condition

with the nice original colours like this.

Amazing. So you can just imagine it in its heyday

kind of blaring out with these jewel like colours.

And then...we spot a familiar face in the dust.

This is Sobek.

So this is just too exciting.

So what's just been cleaned is Sobek's face, the crocodile god.

Amazing. And it's just all appearing right in front of our eyes.

Sobek's image is proof that this discarded stele

was originally made for this sacred site.

So, how old is it?

The Egyptologists have noticed the all important clue.

A Pharaoh's name.

You can see his name is here.

Seti. So, which Seti?

The father of Ramesses ll.

So this is the father of Ramesses ll,

arguably one of the most powerful men on Earth.

Seti I ruled 3,300 years ago.

He expanded the Egyptian Empire and built beautiful temples.

It will be months before experts can fully decipher the stele,

but it's new evidence that his influence reached all the way

to this sacred spot on the Nile.

This is like a kind of CV, sort of,

kind of boasty biography of what Seti achieved.

So it means the press release, it's not just started now,

it dates back to 1300 BC. Of course it did.

We're all big show offs as a species,

we want the world to know how great we are.

And we now know that the crocodile God was worshipped here

over a thousand years before the current temple.

We'll have to start writing all our press releases in stone,

so they survive 3,300 years as well.

Honestly, gentlemen, thank you so much for letting me see this,

it's just the most incredible thing.

And a real privilege to witness it.

I'm still completely reeling from today.

What an incredible experience.

And I'm covered in sand and Nile mud,

but watching those men, there was a lot of camaraderie and support

and laughter and that must have been the case in ancient Egypt too.

And those stone stele, they are beautiful things.

They are historical gold.

They're going to tell us so much about the land here

thousands of years ago.

And they've been hidden in the foundations

of this incredible temple of the crocodile God.

I'm genuinely sad to be leaving Kom Ombo,

but now I've got to head further south.

I'm entering one of the Nile's busiest stretches.

Hi!

I do love this river,

because you never know quite who's going to come down it.

It feels very peaceful,

and then suddenly there's a massive barge carrying stones or sand

or cement or one of these modern day luxury liners

taking tourists on their voyage of a lifetime.

Many of us are heading to the same place.

30 miles south of Kom Ombo is the great southern city of Aswan.

It once marked the border between ancient Egypt

and the rest of Africa...

...and remains the final stop for many great Nile journeys.

So I can just see the Aswan Bridge,

which means that soon I'm going to have to say goodbye

to this beautiful boat, goodbye to the dahabiya.

Just a few miles upstream, the famous Aswan Dam

means that this is as far as large boats like mine can go.

I got to go, I've got to go. Captain, thank you so much.

I enjoyed every moment. Hope to see you again. Yeah.

Boys, thank you so much.

It's been so lovely. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. You've been amazing. Thank you.

Should we do a quick photo, do you think? Yeah. OK. OK.

I don't think you've got Saeed in.

That's it, that's it. What do you say in Arabic? Not cheese,

it's something else.

SPEAKS ARABIC

OK, let's try one, two, three.

THEY SPEAK ARABIC

BETTANY LAUGHS

Yeah, thank you.

That was really great. Thank you. Bye. Bye. See you.

Bye! Thank you. It was amazing.

With its multitude of islands,

Aswan is considered by many to be the Nile's ultimate beauty spot...

...a reputation that helped create one Aswan icon.

The Old Cataract Hotel.

This place was built when Egypt was the winter playground

of the British Empire...

...and it's remained the place to stay for over 100 years.

Oh, my goodness.

Hello. Hi.

Hi, I'm Bettany. Hi.

Your key. Thank you. Hope you enjoy. Great.

1101. OK.

Now I've got to try and find it.

I've been allowed to borrow the key

to one of the hotel's most famous suites,

dedicated to none other than Winston Churchill.

I've just hit a dead-end up that way.

Churchill, on the other hand

would have known this hotel like the back of his hand.

He first stayed here in 1902 when he was just 28 years old,

and he returned many times.

I've found this one.

A few things have been updated since, though.

I'm always hopeless with these things,

but it's definitely not letting me in.

Yeah. OK.

So... Yes. Push. Push, right. Thank you very much.

That is ridiculously posh, isn't it?

So this is called the Winston Churchill Suite

and this is where he came back when he was Prime Minister,

with his family.

It's a nice bathroom.

Oh, very nice touch.

There's a little bag with a hairdryer and it says,

"Wonderful hair begins with a little wind."

I'll remember that...

...next time I'm getting ready to go out.

Oh, it is lovely, though.

Now, that is how I like my views.

That really is something. I've been very lucky in my life,

and I spend my time travelling around to ancient sites...

...and fascinating places. But this is something else.

So you've got a little bit of history

just beyond your balcony, rimmed by the waters of the night.

That is quite something.

It's scenes like this that have made Aswan famous.

But early British guests weren't just here for the view.

The 19th century saw a huge boom in health tourism

with doctors prescribing their wealthier clients a stay in Egypt

as a cure for bronchitis tuberculosis

and the ills of industrial Britain.

Visiting here became so popular

that in 1894 a book was produced called Wintering In Egypt

and it gave the English visitor all kinds of tips

about how to have a marvellous time.

The climate here was described as dry and tonic

and it was perfect as a counterbalance to the gloom

and rigours of an English winter.

It was particularly recommended that men between the ages of 50

and 60 come here if they had a gout-y tendency.

In the book, there's all sorts of recommendations

as to what women and men need to bring with them.

So a woman had to bring a deck chair and cushions, parasol,

a dressing gown and sketching materials, of course.

And for men, they had to bring all kinds of different suits

for the evening and for the daytime.

Sorry to say, two flannel shirts for shooting

and, of course, tennis whites.

Well aware of this advice

was Britain's most famous travel agent Thomas Cook.

He'd already pioneered the modern Nile cruise...

...and with his fleet of steam ships ready to bring in guests,

his company opened the Old Cataract as the ultimate health resort.

With all of this, it meant that this place became a real trigger

for that golden age of Egypt-o-mania

where people loved everything and anything to do with Egypt.

I may have had to leave my dahabiya behind,

but that hasn't stopped my river journey through Aswan.

The city overlooks a unique stretch of the Nile.

With many islands and narrow channels,

it's known as the Cataract.

A small boat is needed to explore these rocky outcrops

and shallow waters.

For the ancient Egyptians,

the cataract formed a physical barrier,

a natural southern border to their land.

And it was here each year that they experienced the first signs

of the annual Nile flood.

The flood meant fertile land, crops, food and prosperity...

...so monitoring the flood was vital.

The islands of Aswan were perfectly placed to do this

and the ancient Egyptians developed a nifty tool.

A nilometer.

Oh, thank you.

This is how the waters would have flooded into the nilometer.

Thank you.

So the river waters would come flooding up here,

and, as they raised, the levels were marked

by all these grooves in the wall.

So that meant that the powers that be could work out

exactly what the level of the floods were,

which meant they could estimate what the sediments would be

on the soil, so they could work out how many crops could be grown.

And, from that, it meant that they could predict

exactly how much they could tax the people.

But despite their clever nilometers,

the ancient Egyptians never worked out

where the energy of the floodwaters actually came from.

They rarely saw rainfall.

To them, water from the sky was a gift of the gods.

We now know that the monsoons of central Africa

cause the floods each year.

But the ancient Egyptians believed the flood waters

emerged from beneath the rocks of the cataract.

Down here there was a system of caves.

The crazy thing was that you could actually hear the flood waters

before you could see them.

So, for the ancient Egyptians, this was a kind of magic moment.

They believed that the gods and goddesses of the Nile

and the Nile floods lived down here

and that this was the source of the life giving powers of the Nile.

Along with the ancient Egyptians,

the true cause of the floods baffled Greeks and Romans

and remained a mystery for centuries.

But just over 100 years ago,

the Nile flood was brought under control.

Ahead of me stands the great Aswan Dam...

...whose construction would threaten

one of the Nile's most beautiful treasures.

I've reached the final city on my journey up the Nile.

The rocks and islands of Aswan

make it quite unlike any other stretch of the river.

It's always been a natural stop-off for travellers.

If you know where to look on these rocks,

you can find inscriptions that date right the way back

to the Pharaonic Period, and they were left by traders

who travelled this stretch of the Nile.

It was a kind of "I was here" stamp.

And we know that festival goers would come

in order to mark the fact they'd come to this sacred spot.

They're really amazing and they carry on for around 3,000 years.

But you have to have quite keen eyes to find them.

Aswan once marked the edge of the Egyptian world,

the gateway to the rest of Africa.

HORN BEEPS

Small, I have.

THEY LAUGH

Gemstones, ebony, incense and ivory flowed through the city,

along with Egypt's most revered and precious item - gold.

Tutankhamun's funeral mask is one of the few golden treasures

to have escaped the robbers and Raiders.

But here in this part of ancient Egypt

gold was once said to be as common as dirt.

So these lovely ladies have just come in and, I think,

because she's got this black henna on her hand,

she must be choosing a wedding or an engagement ring.

Are you getting married?

SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

It's like engagement. Engagement.

Gold jewellery has been found in Egypt

that predates Tut's treasure by more than 2,000 years.

Super special for the ancient Egyptians,

because they also thought it was sacred,

and they believe that gold came from flesh of the sun god Ra.

And that because it didn't tarnish in the ground,

it had magical properties.

So it was a status symbol, but it was also something spiritual.

For many of us, Aswan isn't known for its gold,

but for a famous engineering project, the Aswan Dam.

Just over a century ago, the British were in control here

and changed the Nile forever.

In 1902, a dam opened here just south of the city.

But 60 years later, the Egyptians added another. The high dam.

Sandwiched precariously between them, though,

was a small island with a big treasure.

The temple of Philae.

Reflected in the waters of the Nile, this temple is truly romantic.

I think there's something a bit magical

about all ancient Egyptian temples.

But this one is particularly special,

because when I was a teenager, it was 15 feet submerged under water

and it's been moved block-by -block, over 37,000 blocks,

and jigsaw puzzled together to be in its new place here.

As the second dam was completed in 1970

and the reservoir between the two dams rose,

all but the uppermost parts of the temple disappeared

beneath the water.

The only way to save it was to move it to a higher island.

The ancient Egyptians dedicated Philae to Isis,

a goddess of resurrection.

And the temple now has a new life at a new location,

allowing visitors to appreciate one of Egypt's most famed beauties.

This place felt so perfect.

It was described as the pearl or the jewel of the Nile,

and it attracted travellers across the centuries.

One of the English visitors who came here was Florence Nightingale

She spent three months travelling the Nile,

and she thought that Egypt was a place full of life

and light and beauty.

But her heart was really taken by Philae.

She described it as having a kind of super sacred sense.

And it was actually here in Egypt that she followed what she thought

was a calling from God to become a nurse.

And she went straight from here to train for five years

on the shores of Alexandria.

This place hasn't just enchanted with its beauty,

it has a fascinating tale to tell

about the last clays of ancient Egypt-

Just over 2,000 years ago

with the death of the last great Pharaoh - Cleopatra,

the Romans seized control of Egypt.

But they weren't here just to conquer and suppress.

They were massive fans of ancient Egyptian culture

and even made their own additions to this temple.

Archaeologist Fatma Magdi Anwar has invited me to see the evidence.

Thank you so much. I've read a lot about this but I've never seen it.

This will be a pleasure for me to show you.

Thank you. Come after me.

Watch your step. I will.

Thank you very much.

As you can see here, this is Augustus, the Emperor. Uh-huh.

How do you know that is definitely Augustus?

You can see, that's his name.

He's written it in hieroglyphic letters.

Augustus was the first emperor of the new power Rome...

...but he chose to mark his presence here

using the ancient language of Egypt.

He couldn't be looking more Egyptian.

He's standing in that really typical Egyptian pose

and he's making offerings to the gods as a good Pharaoh would do.

And, I mean, the Romans are kind of more

than half in love with Egypt.

They love the fact it's very wealthy,

but they love everything about it. Yes.

When they came to Egypt, they wanted to win the hearts of Egyptians.

So they worshipped the same gods of the Egyptians.

So it's a kind of hearts and minds campaign,

cos they're already in power.

Yes. But just power. He needed to be loved.

And are there any other emperors

represented anywhere else in the temple?

Yes. We have Nero there. Nero? Yeah.

I would love to see Nero as an Egyptian Pharaoh.

OK. Let's go and see it.

Nero was notorious...

...known for his lavish lifestyle and tumultuous reign.

He's got a particularly splendid headdress on, hasn't he?

Yes, it is lovely, to be sure.

Yeah. Well, I love the fact that he's not even just represented

as a Pharaoh here, he's trying to show himself to be an Egyptian god.

Yes. As you can see he's wearing the crown of god Amun.

Everybody wants to be like an Egyptian.

Yes. And it must make you proud,

I'd imagine, as an Egyptian woman,

the fact that people come here, not just today as tourists,

but through history.

Yes. From every ages and from every country

there is a lot of people who want to be Egyptians

and want to involve with Egyptian culture.

You look very proud, you're actually filling up. Yes.

Yeah, but it is, it's a great thing,

and we're very lucky to be able to share it today.

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for looking after us.

Awh. Oh, well, thank you for looking after us.

It was great, really beautiful. Thank you. Thank you, fantastic.

On my Nile journey, I've met so many people like Fatma

who are incredibly proud of their country's history.

And it's understandable,

since this amazing civilisation endured over 5,000 years

and has been celebrated ever since

by everyone from the Romans, right through to us.

There's one final treat here at Philae,

a tiny detail that bears witness

to the dying breath of ancient Egyptian culture.

The whole of this temple is covered with historical clues

and information, so it might seem slightly perverse to pick this one

which isn't particularly pretty,

but what I'm looking at here is really significant.

These are the last Egyptian hieroglyphs

ever carved on a wall in Egypt.

They date from 394 AD and they were put here by somebody

who was a member of a dynasty of priests who served the goddess Isis.

Now, it's really poignant because what it says here

is that this is a cult that is going to carry on for ever and ever.

But that's not the case, because increasingly the Roman Empire,

and Rome dominated Egypt at this time, is becoming Christian

and within just a few generations paganism was outlawed

and this temple was turned into a Christian church.

Philae marks an end point for ancient Egypt

and for many Nile journeys.

But, for me, there's one last stop on the river I want to show you.

It reveals just how captivated we still are by Egypt.

Many travellers end their Nile journeys here in Aswan...

...but I've got one more treat in store.

And getting there takes me away from the river.

I'm heading to a special place for a very special date.

This drive allows me to get around Aswan's might dams

and press on, 180 miles in fact,

where the ancient Nile Valley is now engulfed by Lake Nasser.

This is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world,

created by the second of those dams downstream.

From the time of the ancients onwards,

Egypt always seems to have attracted

these massive ambitious construction projects,

and that tradition continues.

Lake Nasser, or Lake Nubia as some call it, is 340 miles long

and it took six years to fill.

But I've come this far south

to see one of ancient Egypt's most impressive engineering feats.

There's a temple coming up just here

which symbolises Egypt's glory days.

Abu Simbel.

Without a doubt one of the most striking of Egypt's ancient temples.

Unusually, it was built in one reign by one Pharaoh.

Abu Simbel encapsulates the glory clays of Egyptian rule.

Now, we're used to the leaders of nations

making shouting statements of power.

But, even today, you cannot argue with this.

This is Egypt telling the world that she is in charge

and the incarnation of her power is this man.

It's Ramesses ll, the Pharaoh also known as Ramesses The Great.

And Ramesses is so certain of his potency,

there isn't just one of him here, there's one, two, three, four,

all set in stone.

3,300 years ago,

Ramesses enjoyed one of the longest reigns in history.

Over 67 years, he proved a great leader on the battlefield...

...and a famous builder of enormous temples.

Ramesses left Egypt with more statues of himself

than any other Pharaoh, and it was said that he fathered 100 children.

But what's really interesting is that, despite all of his power,

Ramesses still needs to keep the Nile onside.

So, at the entrance to the temple here, you've got an inscription

showing Hapi, the god of the Nile and the Nile's flood,

and he's binding together the country,

uniting it with the power of the river.

Inside, the temple stretches 185 feet into the mountain.

And, as you might expect, eight more massive images of Ramesses

flank the entrance hall.

There's also a wealth of historical clues.

Like many in power, Ramesses was no stranger to propaganda.

Now, there's absolutely no mistaking the message that is being sent out

by these, frankly, quite disturbing images.

This is the almighty Pharaoh smiting his enemies.

But you've actually got to read these pictures really carefully.

So, if you look at this wall, the whole of this space is being used

to commemorate a very famous battle, The Battle Of Kadesh

between the Egyptians and their arch-enemies the Hittites.

Now, what's really interesting is that this is portrayed

as a glorious victory.

But the truth is, the Egyptians probably didn't win.

I mean, if anything this was a kind of a messy draw.

So this isn't quite fake news,

but it's Ramesses ll being very economical with the truth.

One rather amazing thing did come out of the Battle Of Kadesh.

Years later, the two sides signed the Eternal Treaty,

which has been described as the world's first peace treaty.

And, actually, there's a copy of it

that sits inside the UN building in New York.

It's full of very beautiful words and ideas.

There's talk of the need for the lands

and the people within it to flourish.

Mind you, it makes for devastating reading now,

because Kadesh is in what is modern day Syria.

So 3,300 years on, that promise of peace has been shattered.

One thing that hasn't changed in all that time though

is the aura that Ramesses worked so hard to create.

And, here, there's a unique bit of ancient Egyptian magic.

So I've got to go back to my hotel room now to get some rest

because I have to be back here really, really, really, early

tomorrow morning, because I've actually timed my visit

because something rather unique is going to happen.

Twice a year, this remote spot in southern Egypt

fills with thousands of people.

They come from all over the world to witness an event

that's been going on for over three millennia.

In a few minutes, a shaft of direct sunlight will pierce the temple,

shine right through the hypostyle hall

and hit the far wall of the inner sanctuary.

There, it will illuminate the face of Ramesses The Great

as he sits in line with Egypt's most powerful gods.

There'd have been great excitement in Ramesses time

because the moment when the sun hit his face

was thought to be the moment that it was proved that he was divine.

The moment of alignment is said to happen on Ramesses's birthday

and on his coronation day.

But it doesn't last for long.

As the sun crosses the doorframe,

the light strikes the back of the temple...

...and Ramesses glows in the sun.

Once again, he displays his godlike power...

...just as he did to the ancient Egyptians over 3,000 years ago.

And then as quickly as it started, the moment is gone.

Outside, the festivities continue on the shore of Lake Nasser.

And in the past,

this event would have been the cause for huge celebration, too.

It's really great to see this kind of party festival atmosphere

carrying on outside, because the ancient Egyptians loved a party,

they loved a festival, but we know,

cos it's inscribed in some of the temples

that what they called "the common people"

were only allowed into certain spaces

and never into the inner sanctuary itself.

But with Ramesses desperate to be considered immortal,

I think he'd have loved this modern crowd turning up to honour him.

At the end of my epic journey along the Nile,

here's more proof that we're still fascinated by the great civilisation

that this river gave birth to.

Coming here and making this journey has taught me a huge amount.

I've always known from the history books

that Egypt is described as the gift of the Nile.

But now I really get it,

I understand what that actually means.

The Nile didn't just shape Egypt,

it nourished the lives and life expefience

of millions of rich and poor alike.

The Nile really is the gift that keeps on giving,

because its treasures are shared across the millennia,

not just by the ancients, but by all of us.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media