Moses, Pharaoh and the Dam. The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia is millennia-old

The motif of the clashes between Egyptians and Ethiopians over the waters of river Nile are millennia-old. This article retraces it back to Josephus Flavius passing through Agapius and an unpublished elaboration by the Coptic-Arabic historian al-Makin (13th century), who added the element of a dam stopping the flow of the river. This legend shows the persistence of the theme of water in the Egyptian collective imaginary down to the present confrontation with Ethiopia.