The Banks

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 catacomb where tens of thousands of mummified animals were once left as an offering. Further upstream, there is a chance to swim in the Nile, and look inside the tombs where Tutankhamen's discoverer, Howard Carter, first got hooked on Egypt. Bettany explores the longest tomb yet found, before heading to the Dendera temple, where Cleopatra herself may have once wowed her lover Julius Caesar.

Au cours d'une nouvelle escale, Bettany relate la vie de Cléopâtre, une reine très intelligente et cultivée, qui parlait plusieurs langues. A l'époque, celle-ci a elle-même vogué le long de cette partie du fleuve en compagnie de Jules César. Bettany va ensuite marcher dans les pas de Howard Carter, l'archéologue qui a mis au jour le tombeau de Toutankhamon.