The Nile's influence as a lifeline in the desert stretches a long way south from Egypt, onwards into Nubia, now part of northern Sudan. For over a thousand kilometres, the Nile is the only source of life in a forbidding desert known as ''The Belly of Stones''. For millennia, there have been human settlements here on this green strip clinging to the banks of the Nile. But it's a man-made oasis, extending only as far as farmers can pump the river's precious water. Animals have also benefited from this transformation of barren desert into lush paradise. These, the rivers original inhabitants have witnessed more than one civilisation born of the Nile. These pyramids are the tombs of the so-called ''black pharaohs'' of the Nubian Kingdom of Kush. They too harnessed the Nile's riches, and were at one time powerful enough to rule their Egyptian neighbours, a thousand kilometres to the north. But unlike the Egyptians, little is known about their mysterious culture and language.


尼罗河是沙漠地区的生命线，其无远弗届的影响力南起于埃及，然后向前进入现在位于苏丹北部的努比亚地区。一千多公里的流域上，尼罗河是严苛荒漠上唯一的生命泉源，被人们称为“石之腹”。几千年来，人们在这片苍翠地带之上安居，生活在紧靠尼罗河的河岸边。但是这是一座人造绿洲，因此它只能延伸到农人可以涉取到珍贵水源的地方。野生动物也在由荒漠到苍翠仙境的转变过程中受益。这些大河的原住民见证过尼罗河孕育出不止一个人类文明。 这些金字塔陵墓所埋葬的是努比亚库施王国所谓的“黑法老王”。他们也驾驭过富饶的大河，曾几何时还强盛到足以统治他们的埃及邻邦，势力扩张到北方一千公里。但是不同于埃及人，库施王国的神秘文化和语言鲜为人知。