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The
River Nile is the world's longest river at 4160 miles in
length and
discharges 680,000 gallons of water into the Mediterranean Sea
every second. Taking its name from the
Greek word 'Neilos' (river valley), the actual source has always been a
matter of
dispute because the River Nile has two main tributaries; the
White Nile whose source is believed to be the Ruvyironza River
of Burundi which flows into Tanzania's Kagera River and from
there into Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake and then into
South Sudan and the Blue Nile which discharges from Lake Tana
in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast.
The two rivers meet near the capital of Khartoum in Sudan (above). You can see
why the two joining rivers are called Blue and White Nile by a look at this
image.
The
White Nile gets it name from the light grey sediment that's suspended in its
water whilst the Blue Nile flows through more fertile soil. The
Nile became important many thousands of years ago as climate
change swept across northern Africa. Scientists believe that in
a matter of just a few hundred years around 4000BCE the
grasslands of northern Africa turned to desert as rainfall
ceased and temperatures soared. Certainly, in what are now totally hospitable areas where no
life can survive, there are rock art and engravings (below) showing
animals and water scenes in the area.
There is much evidence
that around this time humans migrated to the water rich
environs of the River Nile whose annual flooding from July to
November (peaking in September at around 20 feet) kept the
surrounding area fertile and hospitable by depositing fresh
soil and silt that was washed down as the river journeyed from
its sources.
This source
of water, food and easy transportation led to the rise of what could
be defined as a single nation by 3100BC covering the Nile Delta
and Nile Valley and the birth of the ancient Egyptian
civilisation that spawned a number of kingdoms until absorbed
into the Roman Empire in 30BCE. Both the Greeks and Romans set
out to identify the source of the Nile however were unable to
move further south than the wetlands of south Sudan.
In
the nineteenth century Europeans joined the quest to discover
the source of the Nile aided by the introduction of steam ships
lower down the river that made such expeditions more viable.
Its discovery is now generally credited to John Hanning Speke
(4th May 1827 - 15th September 1864), a British Indian army
officer who 'discovered' Lake Victoria in 1858 and declared it
the Nile's source, an event he confirmed in a later expedition
in 1863 detailed in his book of that year "The Journal of the
Discovery of the Source of the Nile" published before he
accidentally killed himself in a shooting accident the
following year. Today the
Nile no longer floods after the construction of the Aswan Dam
and 95% of Egypt's population live along its banks. Upstream
increasing strains are being put on the river to support
growing populations in Sudan and Ethiopia in particular.
River Nile: Egypt Country Profile
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River Nile: Main Lakes of Africa
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