Ancient Nubia straddles the lands that are now Egypt and Sudan. Nubia had a high culture in its own right and at times was a worthy rival of Egypt. There were times, in fact, when it was a Nubian who sat on the throne of a united Egypt and there were cultural borrowings in both directions. Nubia, of course, controlled the trade routes into the rest of Africa. When the construction of the Aswan High Dam created Lake Nasser, an enormous swath of Nubia was flooded and the displaced people were given the choice of relocating to either Sudan or Egypt. Many chose Egypt and we set out to visit one of those villages and a family living there just upriver from Aswan.
