Flowing more than 4000 miles from the highland lakes of East Africa to the Mediterranean, the Nile is Africa’s longest river. Ancient Egyptians honored the river as a god, building temples along its banks and revering the animals nourished by its waters. This lecture will examine how the Nile’s geography and ecology underpinned the development of Ancient Egypt; it will also show how the river’s association with divinity has endured beyond antiquity.