by Gianni Guadalupi, 1997. $60.00. $42.00 from barnesandnoble.com plus about $5 for postage. 350 plus pages, I can't count high enough for the number of color illustrations, there is an average, yes average, of two per page. Two are fold outs four pages wide. Heck, there are even a few black and white illustrations. Maps galore from 1592 to 1898.

Chapters include: The River of the Pharoahs, The Imaginary Maps: Nile Cartography from Ptolemy to the Eighteenth Century, A Dynasty of Slaves, A Latter Day Marco Polo: James Bruce in Abyssinia, The Great Sultan: Bonapart in Egypt, A Slave Empire: Mehemet Ali and the Conquest of the Sudan, The Lost City of Meroe: Frederic Cailliaud, Black Ivory: The Slave Trade from Khartoum to Zanzibar, Towards the Mountains of the Moon: Burton and Speke, The Solving of the Enigma: Speke and Grant, A Very Victorian Couple: The Bakers and the Discovery of Lake Albert, The Missionary and the Journalist: Livingsannibals: Schweinfurth and Miani, Ismailia: Baker Conquers Equatoria, The War against Slavery: Gordon and Gessi, The Bankruptcy of the Khedive: British Occupation of Egypt, God's Envoy in the Sudan: The Revolt of al-Mahdi, A Million Pounds' Worth of Ivory: Stanley and the Relief of Emin Pasha, Avenging Gordon: The Reconquest of the Sudan, In the Shadow of the Pyramids: The Nile of Scholars and Artists

I am at a loss for words about this book, the text is almost as good as the illustrations. The is enough info here to keep you in scenarios for the Sudan for months and Darkest Africa for years. As well as providing you data on native dress, colors, huts, terrain and villages.

I know the price is high, but this is the one book for the discovery of the Nile you'll need.