尼罗河的馈赠 · GIFT OF THE RIVER
A Country the Width of a River — Egypt · The Nile
埃及是地球上最干旱的国度之一，可约 95% 的人口、逾一亿一千万人，却挤在大约 4% 的国土上——尼罗河在沙漠里划出的那条细细绿带。
埃及几乎不下雨，水是远道而来的——发源于埃塞俄比亚高原与赤道非洲的湖泊。数千年里，尼罗河每逢夏汛便铺下一层新的黑色淤泥，法老的文明便沿着这条往往只有几公里宽的走廊生长：左手是沙漠，右手也是沙漠。
Egypt is one of the driest countries on Earth, yet about 95% of its ~115 million people live on roughly 4% of its land — the thin green ribbon the Nile draws through the desert.
Almost no rain falls on Egypt; the water comes from afar, born in the Ethiopian highlands and the lakes of equatorial Africa. For millennia the Nile's summer flood laid down fresh black silt each year, and a civilization of pharaohs grew along a corridor often only a few kilometres wide — desert to the left hand, desert to the right.