The
Nile ' onMouseout='HidePop("92489")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Egyptian_language">Ancient Egyptian
Egyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
iteru or
Ḥ'pī,
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
piaro or
phiaro) is a major north-flowing
riverA river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water...
in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, generally regarded as the
longest river in the world.
The Nile has two major
tributariesA tributary is a stream or river which flows into a main stem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body...
, the
White NileThe White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, "White Nile" refers to the river formed at Lake No at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers...
and
Blue NileThe Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile...
, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and
fertile soilSilt is soil or rock derived granular material of a grain size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
, but the former being the longer of the two. The White Nile rises in the
Great LakesThe Great Lakes of Africa are a series of lakes in and around the geographic Great Rift Valley formed by the action of the tectonic East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area, and Lake Tanganyika, the world's second...
region of central Africa, with the most distant source in southern
RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
, and flows north from there through
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
,
Lake VictoriaLake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after the United Kingdom's Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the lake....
,
UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
and southern
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
, while the Blue Nile starts at
Lake TanaLake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia...
in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, flowing into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital
KhartoumKhartoum is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
.
The northern section of the river flows almost entirely through
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
, from Sudan into
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, a
countryIn geography, a country is a geographical region. The term is often applied to a political division or the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region...
whose
civilizationEgyptian history can be roughly divided into the following periods:*Prehistoric Egypt*Ancient Egypt**Early Dynastic Period of Egypt: 31st to 27th centuries BC**Old Kingdom of Egypt: 27th to 22nd centuries BC...
has depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population of Egypt and all of its cities, with the exception of those near the coast, lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of
AswanAswan, formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate....
; and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
are found along the banks of the river. The Nile ends in a large
deltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
that empties into the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
.
Etymology of the word Nile
The word "Nile" comes from Greek
Neilos (Νεῖλος), of unknown derivation. In the ancient
Egyptian languageEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
, the Nile is called
Ḥ'pī or
iteru, meaning "great river", represented by the
hieroglyphsEgyptian hieroglyphs was a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
shown on the right (literally
itrw, and '
watersThe ancient Egyptian ripple, of water is one of the oldest language hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. It is used on a famous label of Pharaoh Den of the First dynasty....
'
determinativeA determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and...
). In
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
, the words
piaro (Sahidic) or
phiaro (Bohairic) meaning "the river" (lit. p(h).iar-o "the.canal-great") come from the same ancient name.
Tributaries and distributaries
The
drainage basinA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
of the Nile covers , about 10% of the area of Africa.
There are two great tributaries of the Nile, joining at
KhartoumKhartoum is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
: the
White NileThe White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, "White Nile" refers to the river formed at Lake No at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers...
, starting in equatorial East Africa, and the
Blue NileThe Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile...
, beginning in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift, the southern part of the
Great Rift ValleyThe Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in East Africa...
. Below the Blue and White Nile confluence the only remaining major tributary is the Atbara River, which originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana, and is around long. It flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very fast. It joins the Nile approximately north of Khartoum.
The Nile is unusual in that its last tributary (the Atbara) joins it roughly halfway to the sea. From that point north, the Nile diminishes because of evaporation.
The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over
six groups of cataractsThe cataracts of the Nile are shallow stretches of the river between Aswan and Khartoum where the water's surface is broken by numerous small boulders and stones protruding from the river bed, as well as many small rocky islets...
, from the first at Aswan to the sixth at Sabaloka (just north of Khartoum) and then turns to flow southward for a good portion of its course, before again returning to flow north to the sea. This is called the "Great Bend of the Nile."
North of
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
, the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the
RosettaRosetta is a port city on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt. It is located 65 km east of Alexandria, in al-Buhayrah governorate. It was founded around AD 800....
Branch to the west and the
DamiettaDamietta, Damiata, or Domyat is a port and the capital of the governorate of Domyat, Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.- History :...
to the east, forming the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
.
White Nile
The
sourceThe source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:More specifically, a source is defined as the most distant point in the drainage basin from which water runs year-around, or, alternatively, the furthest point from which...
of the Nile is sometimes considered to be
Lake VictoriaLake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after the United Kingdom's Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the lake....
, but the lake itself has feeder rivers of considerable size. The most distant stream—and thus the ultimate source of the Nile—emerges from
Nyungwe ForestNyungwe Forest National Park is a national park in southwestern Rwanda, located south of Lake Kivu on the border with Burundi. The park was established in 2004 and covers an area of approximately 970 km² of rainforest, bamboo, grassland, swamps, and bogs. The nearest town is Cyangugu, 54 km to the...
in Rwanda, via the Rukarara, Mwogo, Nyabarongo and
KageraThe Kagera River, also Akagera River, is a remote source of the Nile. The river originates in Burundi, forms the Rwanda-Tanzania, Tanzania-Uganda border and flows into Lake Victoria. During the Rwandan Genocide the river brought massacred bodies into Lake Victoria. It lends its name to Akagera...
rivers, before flowing into Lake Victoria in Tanzania near the town of
BukobaBukoba is a town in northwest Tanzania on the western shore of Lake Victoria. It is the capital of the Kagera region. Population estimate: 100,000...
.
The Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near
Jinja, UgandaJinja is a city in eastern Uganda, Africa. It is the second busiest commercial center in the country, after Kampala, the capital and largest city. Jinja was established in 1907.-Location:...
, as the Victoria Nile. It flows for approximately farther, through
Lake KyogaLake Kyoga is a large shallow lake complex of Uganda, about 1,720 km² in area and at an elevation of 914 m. The Victoria Nile flows through the lake on its way from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert. The main inflow from Lake Victoria is regulated by the Nalubaale Power Station in Jinja. Another source...
, until it reaches Lake Albert. After leaving Lake Albert, the river is known as the Albert Nile. It then flows into Sudan, where it becomes known as the
Bahr al JabalBahr al Jabal may refer to:* Bahr al Jabal, a section of the White Nile between Nimule and Lake No* Bahr al Jabal, a state of Southern Sudan renamed Central Equatoria in 2005...
("River of the Mountain"). The Bahr al Ghazal, itself long, joins the Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called
Lake NoLake No is a lake in Sudan. It is located just north of the vast swamp of the Sudd, at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers. It marks the transition between the Bahr al Jabal and White Nile proper. Lake No is located approximately 1,156 km downstream of Uganda's Lake...
, after which the Nile becomes known as the
Bahr al Abyad, or the
White NileThe White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, "White Nile" refers to the river formed at Lake No at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers...
, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. When the Nile flooded it left this rich material named silt. The Ancient Egyptians used this soil to farm. From Lake No, the river flows to Khartoum. An
anabranchAn anabranch is a section of a river or stream that diverts from the main channel or stem of the watercourse and rejoins the main stem downstream. Local anabranches can be the result of small islands in the watercourse...
river called
Bahr el ZerafThe Bahr el Zeraf is arm of the White Nile in the Sudd region of Sudan, Africa. It is completely contained within the Sudenese state of Jonglei...
flows out of the Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile.
The term "White Nile" is used in both a general sense, referring to the entire river above Khartoum, and a limited sense, the section between Lake No and Khartoum.
Blue Nile
The
Blue NileThe Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile...
(
Ge'ezGe'ez , also called Ethiopic, is an abugida script that was originally developed to write Ge'ez, now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church...
ጥቁር ዓባይ
Ṭiqūr ʿĀbbāy (Black Abay) to
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
ns;
Bahr al Azraq to Sudanese) springs from
Lake TanaLake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia...
in the Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows about to Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile join to form the "Nile proper". 90% of the water and 96% of the transported sediment carried by the Nile originates in Ethiopia, with 59% of the water from the Blue Nile alone (the rest being from the
TekezéThe Tekezé River is a major river of Ethiopia, and forms a section the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea for part of its course. The river is also known as the Setit in Eritrea, western Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the Tekezé...
, Atbarah, Sobat, and small tributaries). The erosion and transportation of silt only occurs during the Ethiopian rainy season in the summer, however, when rainfall is especially high on the
Ethiopian PlateauThe Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa...
; the rest of the year, the great rivers draining Ethiopia into the Nile (Sobat, Blue Nile, Tekezé, and Atbarah) flow weakly.
Yellow Nile
The Yellow Nile is a former tributary that connected the Ouaddaï Highlands of eastern
ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
to the Nile River Valley ca. 8000 to ca. 1000 BCE. Its remains are known as the Wadi Howar. The wadi passes through Gharb Darfur near the northern border with Chad and meets up with the Nile and near the southern point of the Great Bend.
Lost headwaters
Formerly
Lake TanganyikaLake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake . It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia...
drained northwards along the African Rift Valley into the Albert Nile, making the Nile about longer, until blocked in
MioceneThe Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the...
times by the bulk of the Virunga Volcanoes. See List of rivers by length.
Politics
The usage of the Nile River has been vastly associated with East and horn of African politics for many decades. Various countries, including Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have complained about the Egyptian domination of the Nile water resources. The Nile Basin Initiative was one of the most important programs to promote equal usage and peaceful cooperation between the "Nile Basin States." Yet many fear, the Egyptian domination of the waters still causes massive economic obstacles in the area.
The Nile still supports much of the population living along its banks, with the Egyptians living in otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river flooded every summer, depositing fertile silt on the plains. The flow of the river is disturbed at several points by
cataractsThe cataracts of the Nile are shallow stretches of the river between Aswan and Khartoum where the water's surface is broken by numerous small boulders and stones protruding from the river bed, as well as many small rocky islets...
, which are sections of faster-flowing water with many small islands, shallow water, and rocks, forming an obstacle to navigation by
boatA boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is...
s. The
SuddThe Sudd also called the Bahr el Jebel, As Sudd or Al Sudd in southern Sudan, is a vast swamp formed by the White Nile. The area covered thereby is one of the world's largest wetlands and the largest freshwater wetland in the Nile basin. The word “sudd” is derived from the Arabic word “sadd”,...
wetlands in Sudan also forms a formidable obstacle for navigation and flow of water, to the extent that Sudan had once attempted to dig a canal (the Jonglei Canal) to bypass this stagnant mass of water.
The Nile was, and still is, used to transport goods to different places along its long path; especially since winter winds in this area blow up river, the ships could travel up with no work by using the sail, and down using the flow of the river. While most Egyptians still live in the Nile valley, the construction of the Aswan High Dam (finished in 1970) to provide hydroelectricity ended the summer floods and their renewal of the fertile soil.
Cities on the Nile include Khartoum, Aswan,
LuxorLuxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 376,022 , with an area of approximately...
(
ThebesThebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was inhabited beginning in around 3200 BC. It was the eponymous capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian nome...
), and the
GizaGiza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids...
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
conurbation. The first cataract, the closest to the mouth of the river, is at Aswan to the north of the Aswan Dams. The Nile north of Aswan is a regular tourist route, with cruise ships and traditional wooden sailing boats known as
feluccaA felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails....
s. In addition, many "floating hotel" cruise boats ply the route between Luxor and Aswan, stopping in at
EdfuEdfu is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately sixty thousand people. For the ancient history of the city, see below...
and
Kom OmboKom Ombo or Ombos or Latin: Ambo and Ombi – is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for the Temple of Kom Ombo...
along the way. It used to be possible to sail on these boats all the way from
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
to Aswan, but security concerns have shut down the northernmost portion for many years.
More recently, drought during the 1980s led to widespread starvation in Ethiopia and Sudan but Egypt was protected from drought by water impounded in
Lake NasserLake Nasser is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Strictly, "Lake Nasser" refers only to the much larger portion of the lake that is in Egyptian territory , with the Sudanese preferring to call their smaller body of water Lake Nubia...
. Beginning in the 1980s techniques of analysis using hydrology transport models have been used in the Nile to analyze water quality.
Hydrology
The flow rate of the Albert Nile at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages . After Mongalla, the Nile is known as the Bahr El Jebel which enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region of Sudan. More than half of the Nile’s water is lost in this swamp to
evaporationEvaporation is the vaporization of a liquid and the reverse, of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid state spontaneously become gaseous . Generally, evaporation can be seen by the gradual disappearance of a liquid from a substance when exposed...
and
transpirationTranspiration is the evaporation of water from the aerial parts of plants, especially leaves but also stems, flowers and roots. Leaf surfaces are dotted with openings called stoma that are bordered by guard cells. Collectively the structures are called stomata...
. The average flow rate in the Bahr El Jebel at the tails of the swamps is about . From here it soon meets with the Sobat River and forms the White Nile.
The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of drainage area and discharge. The Bahr al Ghazal's
drainage basinA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about annually, due to tremendous volumes of water being lost in the Sudd wetlands. The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, , but contributes annually to the Nile. When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's color.
The average flow of the White Nile at Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is , the peak flow is approximately in early March and minimum flow is about in late August. The fluctuation there is due the substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat which has a minimum flow of about in August and a peak flow of over in early March.
From here the White Nile flows to Khartoum where it merges with the Blue Nile to form the Nile River. Further downstream the Atbara River, the last significant Nile tributary, merges with the Nile. During the dry season (January to June) the White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile. During this period of time the natural discharge of the Blue Nile can be as low as , although upstream dams regulate the flow of the river. During the dry period, there will typically be no flow from the Atbara River.
The Blue Nile contributes approximately 80-90% of the Nile River discharge. The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. During the wet season the peak flow of the Blue Nile will often exceed in latter August (variation by a factor of 50).
Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by a factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over would occur during the later portions of August and early September and minimum flows of about would occur during later April and early May. The Nile basin is complex, and because of this, the discharge at any given point along the
mainstemIn rivers and hydrology, the main stem is defined as the principal channel within a given drainage basin, into which all of the tributary streams in a drainage basin flow. Viewed in terms of the Strahler stream order system, the main stem would be the highest order stream amongst the streams in a...
depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation/
evapotranspirationEvapotranspiration is a term used to describe the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land surface to atmosphere. Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil, canopy interception, and waterbodies...
, and
groundwaterGroundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of lithologic formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in...
flow.
History
The Nile (
iteru in
Ancient EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
) was the lifeline of the
ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
ian civilization, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the
Stone AgeThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground...
. Climate change, or perhaps
overgrazingDesertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from man-made activities and influenced by climatic variations...
,
desiccatedDesiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately-well sealed container.-Science:-Desiccator:...
the
pastoralPastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, sheep, and so forth. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh...
lands of Egypt to form the
SaharaThe Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...
desert, possibly as long ago as 8000 BC, and the inhabitants then presumably migrated to the river, where they developed a settled
agriculturalAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
economyEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and a more centralized
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
.
The Eonile
The present Nile is at least the fifth river that has flowed north from the Ethiopian Highlands.
Satellite imagerySatellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made by means of artificial satellites.- History : First satellite photographs of Earth were made August 14, 1959 by the US satellite Explorer 6. The first satellite photographs of the Moon might have been made on October 6, 1959...
was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. An Eonile canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents an ancestral Nile called the
Eonile that flowed during the later
MioceneThe Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the...
(23–5.3 million years before the present). The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean, where several gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.
During the late-Miocene
Messinian Salinity CrisisThe Messinian Salinity Crisis, also referred to as the Messinian Event, is a period when the Mediterranean Sea evaporated partly or completely during the Messinian period of the Miocene epoch, 5.96 million years ago.-Naming:...
, when the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
was a closed basin and evaporated empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred feet below world ocean level at Aswan and below Cairo. This huge canyon is now full of later sediment.
Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the
Virunga VolcanoesThe Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the northern border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The mountain range is a branch of the Albertine Rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley. They are located between Lake Edward and Lake Kivu.The...
blocked its course in Rwanda. That would have made the Nile much longer, with its longest headwaters in northern
ZambiaThe Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is...
.
The integrated Nile
There are two theories in relation to the age of the integrated Nile. The first one is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age, that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly (the Proto Nile basin) feeding a river following the present course of the Nile in Egypt and in the far north of the Sudan. Said (1981) stresses the idea that Egypt itself supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile and the Atbara/
TakazzeThe Tekezé River is a major river of Ethiopia, and forms a section the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea for part of its course. The river is also known as the Setit in Eritrea, western Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the Tekezé...
flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into
TertiaryThe Tertiary is a term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.588 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
times.
Salama (1987) suggested that during the Tertiary there were a series of separate closed continental basins, each basin occupying one of the major Sudanese Rift System: Mellut Rift, White Nile Rift, Blue Nile Rift, Atbara Rift and Sag El Naam Rift. The Mellut Rift Basin is nearly 12 km deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamps which forms the central part of the Basin is possibly still subsiding. The White Nile Rift System, although shallower than
Bahr El ArabBahr al-Arab is a river which flows approximately through the southwest of Sudan...
, is about 9 km deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5–9 km. These basins were not interconnected except after their subsidence ceased and the rate of sediment deposition was enough to fill up the basins to such a level that would allow connection to take place. The filling up of the depressions led to the connection of the Egyptian Nile with the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial head waters during the latest stages of tectonic activities of Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift Systems. The connection of the different Niles occurred during the cyclic wet periods. The River Atbara overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods which occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years B.P. The Blue Nile was connected to the main Nile during the 70,000–80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile some 12,500 years B.P.
Role in the founding of Egyptian civilization
The Nile, an unending source of sustenance, provided a crucial role in the development of Egyptian civilization. The Nile made the land surrounding it extremely fertile when it flooded or was inundated annually. The
EgyptiansEgyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt....
were able to cultivate wheat and crops around the Nile, providing food for the general population. Also, the Nile’s water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC,
camelCamels are even-toed ungulates within the genus Camelus. The dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the Bactrian camel has two humps. They are native to the dry desert areas of western Asia, and central and east Asia, respectively...
s. These animals could be killed for meat, or could be captured, tamed and used for ploughing — or in the camels' case, travelling. Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a convenient and efficient way of transportation for people and goods.
The structure of Egypt’s society made it one of the most stable in history. In fact, it might easily have surpassed many modern societies. This stability was an immediate result of the Nile’s fertility. The Nile also provided
flaxFlax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. This is called as Agasi/Akshi in Kannada, Jawas/Javas or Alashi in Marathi...
for trade. Wheat was also traded, a crucial crop in the Middle East where famine was very common. This trading system secured the diplomatic relationship Egypt had with other countries, and often contributed to Egypt's economic stability. Also, the Nile provided the resources such as food or money, to quickly and efficiently raise an army for offensive or defensive roles.
The Nile played a major role in politics and social life. The
pharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
would supposedly flood the Nile, and in return for the life-giving water and crops, the peasants would cultivate the fertile soil and send a portion of the resources they had reaped to the Pharaoh. He or she would in turn use it for the well-being of Egyptian society.
The Nile was a source of spiritual dimension. The Nile was so significant to the lifestyle of the Egyptians, that they created a god dedicated to the welfare of the Nile’s annual inundation. The god’s name was
HapyHapi was a deification of the annual flooding of the Nile River, in Egyptian mythology, which deposited rich silt on its banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. When pairing of deities began to occur in the Egyptian pantheon, occasionally a token wife, named Meret , was given to him...
, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding of the Nile River. Also, the Nile was considered as a causeway from life to death and afterlife. The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god
RaRA is an abbreviation or code which may refer to :Science* Right ascension, an astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system...
, the
sunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each time he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were located west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they must be buried on the side that symbolized death.
The Greek historian,
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, wrote that ‘Egypt was the gift of the Nile’, and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years.
That far-reaching trade has been carried on along the Nile since ancient times can be seen from the
Ishango boneThe Ishango bone is a bone tool, dated to the Upper Paleolithic era. It is a dark brown length of bone, the fibula of a baboon, with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving or writing...
, possibly the earliest known indication of
Ancient Egyptian multiplicationAncient Egyptian multiplication, one of two multiplication methods used by scribes, was a systematic method for multiplying two numbers that does not require the multiplication table, only the ability to multiply and divide by 2, and to add...
, which was discovered along the headwaters of the Nile River (near
Lake EdwardLake Edward or Edward Nyanza is the smallest of the African Great Lakes. It is located in the western Great Rift Valley, on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, with its northern shore a few kilometers south of the Equator...
, in northeastern
CongoThe Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country located in Central Africa, with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest country in Africa...
) and was carbon-dated to
20,000 BCThe Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia...
.
The search for the source of the Nile
Despite the attempts of the
GreeksAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
and
RomansRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
(who were unable to penetrate the
SuddThe Sudd also called the Bahr el Jebel, As Sudd or Al Sudd in southern Sudan, is a vast swamp formed by the White Nile. The area covered thereby is one of the world's largest wetlands and the largest freshwater wetland in the Nile basin. The word “sudd” is derived from the Arabic word “sadd”,...
), the upper reaches of the Nile remained largely unknown. Various expeditions had failed to determine the river's
sourceThe source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:More specifically, a source is defined as the most distant point in the drainage basin from which water runs year-around, or, alternatively, the furthest point from which...
, thus yielding classical Hellenistic and Roman representations of the river as a male god with his face and head obscured in drapery. Agatharcides records that in the time of
Ptolemy II PhiladelphusPtolemy II Philadelphus , was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 BC to 246 BC. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice, and was educated by Philitas of Cos...
, a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the
Ethiopian highlandsThe Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa...
, but no European in antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana.
Europeans learned little new information about the origins of the Nile until the 15th and 16th centuries, when travelers to Ethiopia visited not only Lake Tana, but the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Although
James BruceJames Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.-Youth:...
claimed to have been the first European to have visited the headwaters (
Travels to Discover the Source of the NileTravels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 is a multi-volume account of the Scottish traveller James Bruce of his journeys in the Horn of Africa, which includes an eye-witness account of Ethiopian history and culture, as well as a description of...
, 1790), modern writers with better knowledge give the credit to the Jesuit
Pedro PáezPedro Páez or Pêro Pais was a Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. He was the first European who saw and described the source of the Blue Nile. He was born in Olmeda de las Cebollas sixteen years before the union of the Spanish and the Portuguese crowns...
. Páez’ account of the source of the Nile (
History of Ethiopia c. 1622) was not published in full until the early 20th century. The work is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. The account is however featured in several contemporary works, including Balthazar Telles (
Historia geral da Ethiopia a Alta, 1660),
Athanasius KircherAthanasius Kircher was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, and medicine...
(
Mundus Subterraneus, 1664) and by
Johann Michael VanslebJohann Michael Vansleb was a German theologian, linguist and Egypt traveller. He converted to Catholicism and was a member of the Dominican Order from 1666....
(
The Present State of Egypt, 1678).
Europeans had been resident in the country since the late 15th century, and it is entirely possible one of them had visited the headwaters even earlier but was unable to send a report of his discoveries out of Ethiopia.
Jerónimo LoboJerónimo Lobo was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary.He was born in Lisbon the third of at least five sons and six daughters to Francisco Lobo da Gama, the Governor of Cape Verde, and Dona Maria Brandão de Vasconcelos. He entered the Order of Jesus at the age of 14...
also describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. His account is likewise utilized by Balthazar Telles.
The White Nile was even less understood, and the ancients mistakenly believed that the
Niger RiverThe Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
represented the upper reaches of the White Nile; for example,
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower
MauretaniaIn Antiquity, Mauretania was originally an independent Berber kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa , corresponding to western Algeria, northern Morocco and Spanish Plazas de soberanía. The Mauri people were indicated with the Greek word mauros, black...
", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the
MasaesyliThe Masaesyli were a North African tribe of western Numidia and the main antagonists of the Massylii in eastern Numidia. During the Second Punic War they initially supported the Roman Republic, led by Syphax against the Massyllii, led by Massinissa...
, then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for a distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." A merchant named Diogenes reported the Nile’s water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels.
Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
explorer John Hanning SpekeJohn Hanning Speke was an officer in the British Indian army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile.-Life:...
reached its southern shore whilst on his journey with
Richard Francis BurtonCaptain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and...
to explore central Africa and locate the great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then
Queen of the United KingdomVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. The well known British explorer and missionary
David LivingstoneDavid Livingstone was a Scottish Baptist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and explorer in Africa. He was the first European to see the Victoria Falls, to which he gave the English name in honour of his monarch, Queen Victoria. His meeting with H. M...
failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the
Congo RiverThe Congo River is the largest river in Western Central Africa. Its overall length of 4,700 km makes it the second longest in Africa .-Background:...
system instead. It was ultimately the
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
-
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
explorer
Henry Morton StanleySir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB, born John Rowlands , was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone. Stanley is often remembered for the words uttered to Livingstone upon finding him: "Dr...
who confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the Lake's northern shore.
European involvement in Egypt goes back to the time of Napoleon. Laird shipyard of Liverpool sent an iron steamer to the Nile in the 1830s. With the completion of the
Suez CanalThe Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened on November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa...
, and the British takeover of Egypt in the1870s, more British river steamers were sure to follow.
The Nile is the natural navigation channel in the area. Access to Khartoum and Sudan was via steamer. The Siege of Khartoum was ameliorated with steamers. Purpose built sternwheelers were
shipped from England and steamed up the river to re-take the city. After this regular steam navigation came. With British Forces in Egypt in the First World War and the inter war years,
river steamers provided both security and sight seeing to the pyramids and Luxor. Agatha Christie stories indicate the penetration of Nile steamer into the public consciousness. Steam navigation
remained integral to the two countries as late as 1962—Sudan steamer traffic was the lifeline as few railways or roads were built. Most paddle steamers have been retired to shorefront
service, but modern diesel tourist boats remain on the river.
Modern achievements
The White Nile Expedition, led by South African national Hendri Coetzee, became the first to navigate the Nile's entire length. The expedition took off from the source of the Nile in Uganda on January 17, 2004 and arrived safely at the Mediterranean in Rosetta, 4 months and 2 weeks later.
National GeographicThe National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
released a feature film about the expedition towards in late 2005 entitled
The Longest River.
On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an
IMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and projection standard created by Canada's IMAX Corporation. The traditional version of IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film "
Mystery of the NileMystery of the Nile is a 2005 IMAX film documenting the first successful expedition to navigate the entire length of the Blue Nile and Nile from its source in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea. The expedition was led by geologist Pasquale Scaturro. The journey took 114 days and was finished on...
", and in a book of the same title. The team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005 when
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Les Jickling and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
er Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power.
A team led by South Africans Peter Meredith and Hendri Coetzee on 30 April 2005, became the first to navigate the most remote headstream, the remote source of the Nile, the
Akagera riverThe Kagera River, also Akagera River, is a remote source of the Nile. The river originates in Burundi, forms the Rwanda-Tanzania, Tanzania-Uganda border and flows into Lake Victoria. During the Rwandan Genocide the river brought massacred bodies into Lake Victoria. It lends its name to Akagera...
, which starts as the Rukarara in Nyungwe forest in Rwanda.
On March 31, 2006, three explorers from Britain and New Zealand lead by Neil McGrigor claimed to have been the first to travel the river from its mouth to a new "true source" deep in Rwanda's Nyungwe rainforest..
Crossings I
This is a list of crossings from
KhartoumKhartoum is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
to the Mediterranean:
- Aswan Bridge, Aswan
Aswan, formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate....
- Luxor Bridge, Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 376,022 , with an area of approximately...
- Suhag Bridge, Suhag
Suhag is gotra of Jats found in Rajasthan in India.It is also known as Sihag,Sohag,Sehwag and Siyag.The literal meaning of the word 'Suhag' is 'good fortune' and it derives from the Sanskrit word 'saubhaagya' . They were chieftains of a place called ‘Kod Khokhar’ in Mewar region of Rajasthan...
- Assiut Bridge, Assiut
- Al Minya Bridge, Minya
- Al Marazeek Bridge, Helwan
- 1st Ring Road Bridge (Moneeb Crossing), Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- Abbas Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- University Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- Qasr El Nile Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- 6th of October Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- Abu El Ela Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
(removed)
- New Abu El Ela Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- Imbaba Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- Rod Elfarag Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
- 2nd Ring Road Bridge, Cairo
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
Crossings II
This is a list of crossings from
RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
to
KhartoumKhartoum is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
:
- Kiyira Bridge, Jinja
Jinja may be:* Jinja, Uganda, a city in eastern Uganda close to the source of the Nile River* Jinja District, the district in Uganda named after the above city* Jinja , a Shinto shrine* Jinja , a Template engine...
, Uganda
- Karuma Bridge, Karuma, Uganda
See also
- Aswan Dam
Aswan Egypt is the city located near the first cataract of the Nile, which presented the first obstacle from the Mediterranean Sea for boats sailing on the river since antiquity...
- Merowe Dam
The Merowe High Dam, also known as Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is a large construction project in Merowe Town in northern Sudan, about 350 km north of the capital Khartoum. It is situated on the river Nile, close to the 4th Cataract where the river divides into multiple...
- Hydropolitics in the Nile Basin
The Nile River is subject to political interactions. It is the world's longest river flowing 6,700 kilometers through ten countries in northeastern Africa – Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo ,...
- Nile Basin Initiative
The Nile Basin Initiative is a partnership among the Nile riparian states that “seeks to develop the river in a cooperative manner, share substantial socioeconomic benefits, and promote regional peace and security”...
(NBI)
- Egyptian Public Works
The Egyptian Department of Public Works was established in the early Nineteenth Century, and concentrates mainly on public works relating to irrigation and hydraulic engineering. These irrigation projects have constituted the bulk of work performed by this entity in Egypt...
- Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
- Orders of magnitude (length)
align="right"| |}-Detailed List:To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various lengths between 1.6 m and 1.3 m.-Subatomic:-Atomic to Cellular:
...
- River cruise
A River cruise is a voyage along inland waterways, often stopping at multiple ports along the way. Since cities and towns often grew up around rivers, river cruise ships frequently dock in the center of cities and towns.- Descriptions :...
Annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography of the key written documents for the western exploration of the Nile.
1600’s:
Historia da Ethiopia
Pero Pais or
Pedro PaezPedro Páez or Pêro Pais was a Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. He was the first European who saw and described the source of the Blue Nile. He was born in Olmeda de las Cebollas sixteen years before the union of the Spanish and the Portuguese crowns...
Portugal, 1620
A Jesuit missionary who was sent from GoaGoa is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located on the west coast of India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western coast.Panaji is...
to EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
in 1589 and remained in the area until his death in 1622. Credited with being the first European to view the source of the Blue Nile which he describes in this volume.
Voyage historique d'Abissinie
Girolamo Lobo or
Jerónimo LoboJerónimo Lobo was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary.He was born in Lisbon the third of at least five sons and six daughters to Francisco Lobo da Gama, the Governor of Cape Verde, and Dona Maria Brandão de Vasconcelos. He entered the Order of Jesus at the age of 14...
Piero Matini, Firenze; 1693
One of the most important and earliest sources on Ethiopia and the Nile. Jerónimo Lobo (1595-1687), a Jesuit priest, stayed in Ethiopia, mostly in
TigreTigre may mean:-Places in America:* Tigre Island, island of Honduras* Tigre River, located in Peru* Tigre River, located in Venezuela* Tigre Partido, an administrative division in Buenos Aires, Argentina...
, for 9 years and travelled to
Lake TanaLake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia...
and the Blue Nile, reaching the province of
DamotDamot was a medieval kingdom in what is now Ethiopia, and tributary to the Ethiopian Empire. Originally located south of the Abay and west of the Muger River, under the pressure of Oromo attacks the rulers were forced to resettle north of the Abay in southern Gojjam between 1574 and 1606.Bernard...
. When the Jesuits were expelled from the country, he too had to leave and did so via Massaua and
SuakinSuakin or Sawakin is a port in north-eastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. In 1983 it had a population of 18,030 and the 2009 estimate is 43, 337.It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about 30 miles north. The old city built of coral is in ruins...
. ‘He was the best expert on Ethiopian matters. After Pais, Lobo is the second European to describe the sources of the Blue Nile and he did so exacter than Bruce’ (transl. from Henze)
1700’s:
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the Years – 1768, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773
James BruceJames Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.-Youth:...
of Kinnaird
J. Ruthven for G.GJ. and J. Robinson et al., Edinburgh, 1790 (5 Volumes)
With time on his hands and at the urging of a friend, Bruce composed this account of his travels on the African continent, including comments on the history and religion of Egypt, an account of Indian trade, a history of
AbyssiniaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, and other material. Although Bruce would not be confused with "a great scholar or a judicious critic., few books of equal compass are equally entertaining; and few such monuments exist of the energy and enterprise of a single traveller" (DNB). "The result of his travels was a very great enrichment of the knowledge of geography and ethnography" (Cox II, p. 389.) Bruce was one of the earliest westerners to search for the source of the Nile. In November of 1770 he reached the source of the Blue Nile, and though he acknowledged that the White Nile was the larger stream, he claimed that the Blue Nile was the Nile of the ancients and that he was thus the discoverer of its source. The account of his travels was written twelve years after his journey and without reference to his journals, which gave critics grounds for disbelief, but the substantial accuracy of the book has since been amply demonstrated
1800 - 1850:
Egypt And Mohammed Ali, Or Travels In The Valley of The Nile
James Augustus St. JohnJames Augustus St. John , was a British author and traveller. He was born in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the son of Gelly John, shoemaker. He recorded that he received instruction from a local clergyman, eventually mastering the classics, and acquiring proficiency in French, Italian,...
Longman, London, 1834
St. John traveled extensively in Egypt and NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
in 1832-33, mainly on foot. He gives a very interesting picture of Egyptian life and politics under Mohammed Ali, a large part of volume II deals with the Egyptian campaign in SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
.
Travels in Ethiopia Above the Second Cateract of the Nile; Exhibiting the State of That Country and Its Various Inhabitants Under the Dominion of Mohammed Ali; and Illustrating the Antiquities, arts, and History of the Ancient Kingdom of Meroe
G.A.Hoskins
Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, London; 1835
Modern Egypt and Thebes: Being a Description of Egypt; Including Information Required for Travellers in That Country
Sir Gardner Wilkinson
John Murray, London, 1843
The first known English travelers guide to the Lower Nile Basin
1850 - 1900:
Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa, with Notices of The Lunar Mountains and the Sources of the White Nile; being The Results of an Expedition Undertaken under the Patronage of Her Majesty's Government and the Royal Geographical Society of London, In the Years 1857-1859
Sir Richard Burton
W. Clowes , London; 1860
Sir Richard Burton's presentation of his expedition with John Speke. Ultimately, Burton's view of the sources of the Nile failed and Speke's prevailed
Travels, researches, and missionary labours, during eighteen years' residence in eastern Africa. Together with journeys to Jagga, Usambara, Ukambani, Shoa, Abessinia, and Khartum; and a coasting voyage from Mombaz to Cape Delgado. With an appendix respecting the snow-capped mountains of eastern Africa; the sources of the Nile; the languages and literature of Abessinia And eastern Africa, etc.etc.
Rev Dr. J. Krapf
Trubner and Co, London; 1860
Tickner & Fields, Boston; 1860
Krapf went to East Africa in the service of the English Church Missionary Society, arriving at
MombasaMombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. It has a major port and an international airport. The city is the centre of the coastal tourism industry. The original Arabic name is Manbasa; in Swahili it is called Kisiwa Cha Mvita , which means "Island of War", due to the...
,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
in 1844 and staying in East Africa until 1853. While stationed there he was the first to report the existence of
Lake BaringoLake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Great Rift Valley lakes of Kenya, with a surface area of about 130 km² and an elevation of about 970 m. The lake is fed by several rivers, El Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel, and has no obvious outlet; the waters are assumed to seep through...
and a sighting of the snow-clad Kilimanjaro. Krapf, during his travels, collected information from the Arab traders operating inland from the coast. From the traders Krapf and his companions learned of great lakes and snow-capped mountains, which Krapf claimed to have seen for himself, much to the ridicule of English explorers who could not believe the idea of snow on the equator. However, Krapf was correct and had seen Mounts Kilimanjaro and Kenya, the first European to do so.
Egypt, Soudan and Central Africa: With Explorations From Khartoum on the White Nile to the Regions of the Equator, Being Sketches from Sixteen Years' Travel
John PetherickJohn Petherick , Welsh traveller in East Central Africa, was born in Glamorganshire, and adopted the profession of mining engineer....
William Blackwood, Edinburgh; 1861
Petherick was a well known Welsh traveler in East Central Africa where he had adopted the profession of mining engineer. This work describes sixteen years of his travel throughout Africa. In 1845 he entered the service of Mehemet Ali, and was employed in examining Upper Egypt, Nubia, the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
coast and Kordofan in an unsuccessful search for coal. In 1848 he left the Egyptian service and established himself at El Obeid as a trader and was, at the same time made British Consul for the Sudan. In 1853 he removed to
KhartoumKhartoum is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
and became an ivory trader. He traveled extensively in the Bahr-el-Ghazal region, then almost unknown, exploring the Jur,
YaloYalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
and other affluents of the
GhazalThe ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...
and in 1858 he penetrated the Niam-Niam country. Petherick's additions to the knowledge of natural history were considerable, being responsible for the discovery of a number of new species. In 1859 he returned to England where he became acquainted with John Speke, then arranging for an expedition to discover the source of the Nile. While in England, Petherick married and published this account of his travels. He got the idea to join Speke in his travels, and in this volume is an actual subscription and list of subscribers to raise money to send Petherick to join Speke. His subsequent adventures as a consul in Africa were published in a later work
Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile
John Hanning SpekeJohn Hanning Speke was an officer in the British Indian army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile.-Life:...
Blackwood, Edinburgh; 1863
Harper & Brothers, New York; 1864
Speke had previously made an expedition with Sir Richard Burton under the auspices of the Indian government, on which Speke was convinced that he had discovered the source of the Nile. Burton, however, disagreed and ridiculed Speke's account. Speke set off on another expedition, recounted here, in the company of Captain Grant. During the course of this expedition he not only produced further evidence for his discoveries but also met up with Sir
Samuel BakerSir Samuel White Baker, KCB, FRS, FRGS was a British explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist. He also held the titles of Pasha and Major-General in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. He served as the Governor-General of the Equatorial Nile Basin between Apr....
and provided him with essential information which helped Baker in his discovery of the Albert Nyanza. The importance of Speke's discoveries can hardly be overestimated. In discovering the source reservoir of the Nile he succeeded in solving the problem of all ages; he and Grant were the first Europeans to cross Equatorial Eastern Africa and gained for the world a knowledge of about of a portion of Eastern Africa previously totally unknown
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