REVIEW BY JPP
Colin Reader is a geologist who has combined his professional knowledge with his passion for Egyptology to produce a fascinating geological history of the country. The title of his book derives from Herodotus’ assertion that the ancient Egyptian civilisation was ‘a gift of the river [Nile]’. Reader contends that this is only partly true. He says that it was the combination of several fortuitous geological events and processes that allowed the pharaonic civilisation to flourish.
The book is hugely ambitious in its scope, covering the two billion years that shaped the country we see today. It begins with a brief introduction to the subject of geology and then traces the peregrinations of the African continent from Antarctica to its present position, the formation of the various sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic strata that underlie the present surface, and the many changes in sea level of what is now the Mediterranean.
A chapter is devoted to the evolution of the River Nile through its different phases. During its Eonile phase, the river flowed from north to south, and cut a canyon 2,500 metres deep – much deeper than the Grand Canyon in the USA. The familiar cliffs that loom over Hatshepsut’s temple are in fact only the upper 10% or 20% of the canyon walls.
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