The Blue Nile

by Alan Moorehead

Book Overview

In the first half of the nineteenth century, only a small handful of Westerners had ventured into the regions watered by the Nile River on its long journey from Lake Tana in Abyssinia to the Mediterranean-lands that had been forgotten since Roman times, or had never been known at all. In The Blue Nile, Alan Moorehead continues the classic, thrilling narration of adventure he began in The White Nile, depicting this exotic place through the lives...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060956402
• ISBN13: 9780060956400
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

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Totally fascinating book. In particular the saga of the British invasion of Ethiopia merely to rescue a few handfuls of prisoners from the clutches of Theodore, the emperor, would make a terrific movie, but perhaps just now, not too terribly PC, as Theodore does not come off in a very good light (to say the least), and of course he is black. Also charts Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. It is basically a study of the history of the Nile in the 19th century, well only until 1868, when the British left, and a brief epilogue about the Blue Nile in the 20th century until the 70s when the book was revised. The other two expeditions recounted were the one of James Bruce, the Scotsman, and Mohammed Ali's campaigns in the Sudan in the early 1820s. Suberb.

The Emperor Theodore

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.

The Blue Nile

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.

Wonderful history and adventure

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.

The astonishing story of one history's greatest mysteries.

"The Blue Nile" is the story of one of history'sgreatest mysteries: the search for the source of the Nile. Sincebefore recorded time, it has been the greatest river on Earth. It surges powerfully through thousands of miles of forbidding desert; never ceasing, a giver of life that for millennia held one enduring mystery: where did it come from? As Moorehead tells us, it was the last great unknown. By the 1850s, maps of the world were accurate from corner to corner-- except for the "Dark Continent" of Africa. Its massive interior was blank; a question mark. No explorer had ever entered it and come out alive. One of the greatest ages of exploration was on: a time of Stanley and Livingston, of astonishing discoveries, of bravery and courage, slavery and horror. A handful of men risked everything to solve the Holy Grail that spurred them on: to find the source of the Nile. Note: This book was originally published in the early 1960s, I believe, along with a companion book, "The White Nile," which traces the stories, history, and intriguing exploration of the other branch of the Nile within Africa's interior. If you read one, you won't be able to resist the other. END