Egypt and the Nile, 1954

[Music] Africa is a large continent its northern end almost all desert wasteland but in the northeastern corner of Africa on the only land route between that continent and Asia there's a nation almost as old as history Egypt a thin ribbon of water is the source of life for 20 million people clustered along the banks of one of the most important rivers in the world the Nile it begins in the Fertile area of Central Africa Ethiopia and flows with ever-increasing strength and vigor through the high plateau of the Sudan it's two main branches they white and the blue join at Khartoum and flow northward [Music] after passing a series of cataracts the Nile reaches Egypt at the temple at Abu Simbel the family of ramses ii has watched over the river for 3,000 years years that saw ramses kingdom become a memory Western civilization spent its infancy in Egypt along the shores of the river but Egypt is struggling for a new and modern life here at Aswan the Nile Egypt's only reliable source of water is trapped in a reservoir a hundred miles long this used to be the site of the historical first cataract the end of river travel on the Nile the jumping off spot to Central Africa in the south [Music] here like nearly everywhere else in Egypt the people live close to the waters of the Nile they are Nubian peasants accustomed by tradition to lifelong labor in the fields their techniques were old when Egypt was young the customs habits clothes and tools are old [Music] their only wealth is the livestock that shares their mod homes [Music] their other belongings are few and simple the dam at Aswan has changed much of Egypt in the more than 50 years since it was built veterans from the desert have grown accustomed to crossing it on their way to the markets and streets of the city as in most of the settlements of Egypt the faces in the marketplace may have changed in the last few thousand years but the buying and selling remained the same s Wan has been a trading center for thousands of years in the days of Egypt's ancient glory Aswan was a city of the first importance this was Egypt's frontier the dam at Aswan has done more than extend the frontier it is one of the most vital engineering accomplishments in recent Egyptian history it helps to control the flow of the night no more annual floods followed by annual droughts water is held at Aswan until it is needed no more is river traffic blocked at Aswan for locks of the dam are operated by a new generation of Egyptians with technical training [Music] along the broad course of the river most of the goods of Egypt move on their way to markets [Music] but for many Egyptians the main use for the river is to spread its life-giving water on their thirsty land since the dawn of history a fella Hien the farmers of middle Egypt have known the back-breaking labor of moving water to arid fields little has changed over the centuries and labor in flat irrigated fields still produces most of Egypt's Crump's where water can be brought to the soil fertile and productive but parts of the valley are limited by steep sandstone cliffs which confine irrigation in some cliffs can be found the Egyptian limestone which has been famous for centuries few modern tools have been adopted by the limestone workmen again most of the labor is still done by hand [Music] limestone like most other products of Egypt is carried to its destination by water then moved ashore on a man's back the Nile is truly the river of life in Egypt and has been since men came to this land in the whole length of the middle Egyptian River Valley can be found the remains of civilizations that were dying when Rome was the center of the world at Luxor Thebes and memin there was a highly developed and flourishing civilization when the woodlands of Europe were thinly peopled with savage tribesmen these ancient civilizations too were clustered along the narrow Valley of the Nile at some places 15 miles across at others only a few hundred yards wide where the waters of the Nile cannot reach the earth Egypt is a barren trackless desert only a small percentage of Egypt's growing population lives away from the banks of the Nile the rain is scanty on the desert an oasis with reliable water supplies are widely scattered there are no year-round tributaries to the Nile below Aswan most of Egypt's water must come from the river where the river flows there is a green and fertile belt where dates oranges lemons pomegranates grapes melons onions cotton corn wheat and millet grow typical of the cities of middle Egypt is a ship 320 miles north of Aswan it is a market town set near the river you might think to look at it closely that you had somewhere lost a few centuries and we're living in the past except for a few people wearing modern clothes you could believe that this was a city waiting for the crusades to begin [Music] but there is a new spirit in us youth these days which is expressed in electric power lines broad avenues and new buildings at us yet you can find a kind of dam called the barrage which holds up the level of the nile water so that nearby farmers can irrigate their fields even during the dry season there are several Burridge's along the Nile [Music] here the valley is broad and fertile every tiny bit of land is used every precious drop of water carefully taken to the thirsty roots [Music] [Applause] when Moses fled out of Egypt this kind of waterwheel may have been used in this same spot and this man's ancestor might have worked the same land or lived in a mud house that looks just like this one [Music] Egyptians used the Nile to transport their goods this sugarcane could not grow without the water of the Nile now could it be easily moved to market but the small sailboat brings it to a small market town and the cane is landed by hand [Music] even the leaves are stripped from the stalk by hand [Music] 250 miles downriver from a suet stand the world-famous Pyramids at Giza built as monumental tombs for Egyptian pharaohs they have survived 50 centuries of weather and 200 generations of men [Music] near them the largest and best-known of Egypt's sphinxes stairs eight miles across the river at Egypt's biggest city Cairo the capital some of the people of Cairo make their living in modern cotton factories travelers come from all over the world to Cairo for Cairo is a modern city a city of skyscrapers a city of hurried activity as cosmopolitan as any capital in the world a city on the route from Africa to the Middle East from Europe to Asia a city of wealth in a land of poverty [Music] modern apartment buildings dot the city but in the shadows of the new city can be found the old here the crafts of Egypt's past still flourish young men of Cairo still make rugs by hand in the bazaar the delicate art of in laying wooden boxes is still being practiced the work is painstaking and beautiful from the bazaar intricate silver work might find its way to one of Cairo's many Christian churches or it might show up in a synagogue but probably if the silver work were to be used in a place of worship at all it would end up in a mosque for most Egyptians are Muslims Cairo is an important center of learning elaj are the university attracts students from all over the Muslim world Cairo is a city of many peoples [Music] and Cairo is a center of Transportation the most widely used form of travel in Egypt is by boat [Music] a railroad runs from Aswan to the sea but most Egyptians are too poor to use it Cairo has been called the diamond in the handle of the fan of Egypt it's easy to see why when one leaves the city by air for near Cairo the Nile splits into several channels forming a fan-shaped Delta interlaced by waterways this is probably the most fertile land in the world but most of it is overcrowded most of Egypt's annual production of millions of bushels of corn wheat and rice comes from the Delta land Egypt grows 6% of the world's total annual coffee production egyptian long staple cotton blooming year has been valued for its soft and sturdy qualities by cloth makers all over the world sugar cane grows in the Delta in every field peasants gain a hard-won living from the soil crops for export find their way to Alexandria one of the most valuable seaports in the world the key to the fruitfulness of the Nile Valley here too is a modern city built around it shipping business 4,000 ships a year common goal from Alexandria they carry out some of the exports of Egypt like tobacco and rice but the most valuable export by far is raw cotton cotton for the hungry looms of more industrial nations finally the Nile loses itself in the sea but Egypt does not end here or to the east in Egypt can be found one of the most vital waterways of the world the Suez Canal over 10,000 ships a year take this short water route from Europe to the Far East modern Egypt is important in the world situation its exports of cotton tobacco and rice have a wide effect on world markets but Egypt's most profound effect on the Western world stems from its long history for Egypt is indeed the cradle of our civilization [Music]