Nile The Nile (Arabic: النيل, transliteration: an-nīl, Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world.[1] The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and fertile soil, but the former being the longer of the two. The White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source in southern Rwanda 2°16′55.92″S, 29°19′52.32″E, and flows north from there through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and southern Sudan, while the Blue Nile starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia 12°2′8.8″N, 37°15′53.11″E, flowing into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The northern section of the river flows almost entirely through desert, from Sudan into Egypt, a country whose civilization 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 Aswan; and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along the banks of the river.
The Nile ends in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
Etymology of the word Nile
The word "Nile"(Arabic: 'nīl) comes from the Greek word Neilos (Νειλος), meaning river valley. In the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called iteru, meaning "great river", represented by the hieroglyphs shown on the right (literally itrw).[2] In Coptic, 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
East Africa, showing the course of the Nile River, with the "Blue" and "White" Niles marked in those colours
The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 km², about 10% of the area of Africa [1].
There are two great tributaries of the Nile: the White Nile, starting in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile, beginning in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift, the southern part of the Great Rift Valley. Another less important one is the Atbarah which flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very fast.
White Nile
The source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake itself has feeder rivers of considerable size. The most distant stream emerges from Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, via the Rukarara, Mwogo, Nyabarongo and Kagera rivers, before flowing into Lake Victoria in Tanzania near the town of Bukoba.
The Blue Nile Falls fed by Lake Tana near the city of Bahar Dar, Ethiopia forms the upstream of the Blue Nile. It is also known as Tis Issat Falls after the name of the nearby village.
The Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls, near Jinja, Uganda, as the Victoria Nile. It flows for approximately 500 km (300 miles) farther, through Lake Kyoga, 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 Jabal ("River of the Mountain"). At the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal with the Bahr al Ghazal, itself 720 km (445 miles) long, the river becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad, or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. From there, the river flows to Khartoum. When the Nile flooded it left this rich material named silt. The Ancient Egyptians used this soil to farm.
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile (Ge'ez ጥቁር ዓባይ Ṭiqūr ʿĀbbāy (Black Abay) to Ethiopians; Bahr al Azraq to Sudanese) springs from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows about 1,400 km (850 miles) 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[3] originates in Ethiopia, with 59% of the water from the Blue nile alone (the rest being from 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 Plateau; the rest of the year, the great rivers draining Ethiopia into the Nile (Sobat, Blue Nile, Tekezé, and Atbarah) flow weakly.
Composite satellite image of the White Nile (see also the Nile delta)
Lost headwaters
Formerly Lake Tanganyika drained northwards along the African Rift Valley into the Albert Nile, making the Nile about 900 miles longer, until blocked in Miocene times by the bulk of the Virunga Volcanoes. See List of rivers by length.
