Scholars from Three Continents Trace the Shared DNA of Great River Civilizations

By FENG, XIAOLOU|Sep 17,2026

Chongqing - On Sep 16, as a satellite program of the 2026 Yangtze River Civilization Forum, the Thematic Sharing Event of Yangtze River Culture Tour and Exchange convened a rare gathering of archaeologists, historians, and journalists from China, Egypt, and Brazil. Under the theme Coexistence, Evolution, and Mutual Learning Among the World's Great River Civilizations, the session treated the Yangtze not as an isolated waterway, but as a node in a global network of river-born cultures.

Alaaeldin was amazed by Shibaozhai and its surrounding community (Photo: Feng Xiaolou)

The Egyptian delegation offered one of the most striking intellectual pairings. Dr. Alaa Manshawy, former director-general of Luxor Museum, opened with a sweeping reflection on the Nile and the Yangtze as twin birthplaces of settled life. "Difference is not a barrier," he told the audience. "In fact, it is precisely difference that gives us more opportunities to learn." He closed with a line that drew applause: "From the Nile to the Yangtze, heritage connects us, mutual learning brings us closer, and cooperation builds a better tomorrow for all."

Alaaeldin gave his speech about Nilometer and Baiheliang (Photo: Feng Xiaolou)

His compatriot, Professor Alaaeldin Elhabashi of Menoufia University, narrowed the lens to two stone monuments — Cairo's medieval Nilometer and Chongqing's Baiheliang inscriptions. Both, he argued, transformed seasonal floods into public knowledge, yet one channeled authority through a state-run measuring well while the other accumulated community memory directly on a riverbed rock. "Rivers are not merely natural systems," Elhabashi said. "They are also cultural archives." His comparison framed hydrological heritage not as engineering trivia, but as a record of how societies read, remember, and respond to the natural world.

From the other side of the globe, Brazilian perspectives emphasized dialogue through modern media. Thiago Tanji, second vice-president of Brazil's National Federation of Journalists, described journalism as "a bridge between civilizations" and admitted that even in São Paulo, a megacity of 12 million, the Amazon can feel distant. "Our connections run deeper than our differences," he said, arguing that shared environmental stakes override geographical distance. Vera Maria Ferreira da Silva of the National Institute of Amazonian Research posed the session’s most direct question: "What can the Amazon learn from the Yangtze?" Her presence underscored that the forum was not a one-way lecture, but a genuine exchange among basins facing parallel ecological pressures.

The scholars visited Shibaozhai at Zhong county (Photo: Feng Xiaolou)

Chinese scholars anchored the discussions in local specifics. Liu Litang of Wuhan University traced the archaeological origins of Yangtze civilization, while Lan Yong of Southwest University argued for the global significance of the Chuanjiang inland navigation tradition. Li Yongxian of Sichuan University and He Yizhan of Chongqing Normal University connected ancient Ba culture to the broader Central Plains, showing how the river served as a corridor for cultural fusion long before modern nation-states existed.

Taken together, the speeches sketched a map where the Yangtze, Nile, and Amazon are not competitors for tourist attention, but case studies in a single human experiment: how to build lasting societies along restless waters.

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Scholars from Three Continents Trace the Shared DNA of Great River Civilizations

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