It’s the longest river on Earth; flowing from the heart of the continent, it has written a story across the landscape as it forges its way North, through mountains, forests, marsh and desert. For centuries its waters have sustained life in some of the harshest places on Earth, without it this corner of Africa would be only rock and dust and sand. Civilisations have risen and fallen on its banks, without its gifts the pyramids would never have been built.
