Two qualities define the Nile as the ultimate river. First, it is the world’s longest river. From the source in Rwanda to the end at the Mediterranean Sea, it travels 6650 kilometres (4130 miles).
A hundred miles south of Cairo a stretch of the Nile was once considered Egypt's main highway, used by Cleopatra to travel the country. More than 2,000 years after her, Bettany visits a vast desert ...