River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

Art historians refer to the fear of leaving empty spaces on maps as horror vacui. Prior to the 18th century, European mapmakers added sea monsters, decorative features, imaginary mountains, and mythical creatures to their maps. They based these additions on imagination and rumors. Early mapmakers feared leaving blank spaces on maps. Cartography dramatically changed during the Age of Enlightenment, which was a period of rigorous political, scientific, and philosophical discourse during the 18th century. European mapmakers relied on firsthand accounts, resulting in them leaving blank spaces on maps where Europeans had not yet visited.

The Nile River represents the longest river in Africa, flowing northward through northeastern Africa over 4,000 miles until it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile River played a key role in the development of ancient Egyptian civilization. In fact, without this water source, ancient Egyptians likely never would have gained the power and wealth they needed to control vast swathes of land and build pyramids. Egyptians have used the silt deposited by the river for millennia to grow their food. The Nile remains important to Egypt today, with 95 percent of Egyptians living within just a few miles of the river.

Several major tributaries, or upper river branches, feed into the Nile, like rivers of similar length. The Blue Nile and the White Nile represent the main two tributaries. For thousands of years, people have wondered about the sources of these two tributaries. Burton and Speke became obsessed with finding the White Nile’s source. River of the Gods focuses on their expeditions.

The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important archaeological finds ever made. It is a fragment of a larger stone erected in 196 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy V at an Egyptian temple. Its surface includes a decree issued by Egyptian priests to commemorate the coronation of Ptolemy. The text lists Ptolemy’s accomplishments.

The stone was rediscovered by French troops and local laborers in 1798 when they were destroying an old wall to use the stones for a nearby fort. Three different scripts covered the stone: hieroglyphs (language of the Egyptian priests), ancient Greek, and Demotic (everyday language of the Egyptian people). At the time, hieroglyphs and the Demotic script were undeciphered. However, the text appeared to repeat in each of the scripts. Scholars realized that the ancient Greek text could help decipher the hieroglyphs and Demotic script, which would uncover the secrets of ancient Egypt. Europeans had only recently begun to recognize the achievements made in ancient Egypt, which is why scholars were especially excited about the Rosetta Stone’s discovery.

Scholars made copies of the stone and sent them throughout Europe. News of the stone reached Lord Elgin, the British minister in Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), who was widely known as a collector of artifacts. After learning that the British planned to drive the French out of Egypt, Elgin sent his secretary William Richard Hamilton to recover the stone. Despite French troops’ best efforts to hide the stone, Hamilton discovered its location and retrieved it. He sent the stone to England. The British Museum has housed the stone ever since. Scholars first deciphered the hieroglyphs in 1822 and the Demotic script in 1848.

Recently, Egyptians have renewed calls for the Rosetta Stone to be returned to Egypt. Egypt, like many other countries that fell under colonial rule, has begun to demand the return of its artifacts that European countries stole from them.