First Sentence

"Down the fabled four-thousand-mile Nile, the longest river in the world, past the Delta, Cairo, the Sphinx, the pyramids of Giza, the once-thriving city of Memphis and the lavish necropolis at Saqqara, to the ancient venerable capital of the New Kingdom, Thebes, which then stretched for miles along once fertile, grass-green banks, the colorful landscape was and still is a vast, unforgettable museum of ancient incredibilities."