The Blue Nile

Rating:
Summary: The Emperor Theodore
Review: The river is 2750 miles long. The source is located in Ethiopia. It is 6000 feet above sea level. Lake Tana is the source of the river. After the Tisisat Falls, the river makes a great gash across the Ethiopian plateau. The Blue Nile joins the White Nile at Khartoum. The Blue Nile brings life down from the mountains to the desert and the delta.

In the 18th century James Bruce declared that he had been to the source of the Blue Nile. He was brave and determined and a dedicated amateur. Bruce thought the Blue Nile was the main stream and the White Nile was a tributary. Affairs in Ethiopia were nightmarish. The Ethiopian warriors were impressed by the power of his rifle. His book appeared in 1790, seventeen years after his expedition.

Bonaparte dreamed of Alexandrian conquests. He felt that as a man of the Mediterranean he understood Islamic rulers. When he decided to take Egypt, the secret of his destination was well-kept. The garrison at Malta was taken in the first assault. At the time Alexandria had been decimated but Cairo was flourishing. Memphis had decayed into nothing. The Mamelukes, a military oligarchy, had been the rulers in fact for the five hundred years before the advent of the French. Alexandria was captured easily and then Cairo was occupied.

Up to 1798 Egyptology did not exist. The French Navy was defeated by Lord Nelson and in 1801 a force of English and Turkish soldiers forced the French to leave Egypt. Almost all of Bonaparte's plans for the westernization of Egypt were eventually carried out. Egypt, the Suadan and Ethiopia were drawn into a new scheme of international politics.

After Waterloo England was the great sea power. Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt, hesitated to go into the Sudan and Ethiopia fearing to antagonize the British. A French traveler, Cailliaud, reported on the ruins at Meroe and his account formed the basis of all subsequent archaeology at the site. Flaubert visited the Upper Nile in 1850 and provided a description of its gaudy squalor and sensual excitement. Luxor became an English watering place.

The politics of Ethiopia became bound up with the politics of its ruler, the Emperor Theodore, a raging reformer and tyrant. When he imprisoned the British consul and the actions of the Queen's representative did not result in the freeing of the consul, an expedition in 1868 was mounted to achieve that objective. The expedition was under the auspices of General Namier and the Indian Army. At a point when the Ethiopians preferred surrender to the superior forces, the Emperor Theodore killed himself. He was buried by Coptic priests. The empire collpsed entirely.

Colonel R.E. Cheesman, age 84, the last of the African explorers appears on the author's acknowledgment page. The book is wonderfully enlightening and compelling.

Rating:
Summary: The Blue Nile
Review: This book and its companion book The White Nile are both some of the more enjoyable and interesting history books available. They will not disappoint anyone looking for an interesting story of equatorial exploration, in the days when the interior of African was still the "great unknown " to the world at large. One should read both the Blue and White Nile books by this author to really get a feel for the history that concentrates on the era of European involvemnt into the Nile area and of course the discovery of the source of the Nile. It also gives a good background into the roots of modern history of Egypt and Ethiopia with respect to the European powers in light of todays events.

Rating:
Summary: The Blue Nile
Review: This book and its companion book The White Nile are both some of the more enjoyable and interesting history books available. They will not disappoint anyone looking for an interesting story of equatorial exploration, in the days when the interior of African was still the "great unknown " to the world at large. One should read both the Blue and White Nile books by this author to really get a feel for the history that concentrates on the era of European involvemnt into the Nile area and of course the discovery of the source of the Nile. It also gives a good background into the roots of modern history of Egypt and Ethiopia with respect to the European powers in light of todays events.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book
Review: This book traces the history of the socalled 'Blue Nile' from the early 18th and 19th centuries forward (the 'Blue Nile' is the stretch of the Nile running from Etheopia to Alexandria). The book focuses on the exploration of the region as well as the wars, including that of Napoleon fighting the Mamelukes, and how he later was ousted by the English and the Turks. There are also many vivid and detailed descriptions of various tribes on the lower Nile, and, as always, Alan Moorehead has an instinct for colour, detail, and action. It is a worthy sequel to 'The White Nile', although it is understandably difficult to find the equals of such characters as Livingstone and Stanley who loomed large in the first book. Still it is well worth reading and superbly entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: So-so
Review: This companion volume to The White Nile is another fascinating history of that great river and of the people who were influenced by it. Although these books were best sellers in the early 60s, I'm amazed that they are not now widely read. Read one and you will search out everything else Moorehead has written.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful history and adventure
Review: This companion volume to The White Nile is another fascinating history of that great river and of the people who were influenced by it. Although these books were best sellers in the early 60s, I'm amazed that they are not now widely read. Read one and you will search out everything else Moorehead has written.