Herodotus’ famous quote, “Egypt is a gift from the Nile” is still relevant today. Now, the majority of Egyptians live on the banks of the great river. They fish and channel the river water to irrigate their fields. This first episode introduces to the people who live on the riverbank, from Rosetta, where it flows into the Mediterranean, to Abu Simbel.

The cult of death holds a important place in ancient Egypt. Necropolises, pyramids, mummies, and sarcophagi are comprise most of the archaeological discoveries on Egyptian soil, and are directly related to funerary rites. From mummification to the cult of Osiris, discover the ancestral rites, still present today, that linked the Egyptians to death and eternal life.

Ancient Egypt gave the world the most extraordinary monuments of all time. Although its 3,500-year history came to an abrupt end with the triumph of Christianity in the 4th century, this extraordinary civilization has not disappeared. When, in the 19th century, Jean-François Champollion pierced the secret of the hieroglyphs, the world understood what it owed to the ancient Egyptians.

Traveling through the land of the Pharaohs, around 450 BC, Herodotus was struck by the contrast of the lush banks of the great river and the aridity of the surrounding desert. In this last episode, venture into the desert that the Egyptians of the Nile never really managed to control. It is still a place of danger and rebellion.