THE NILE

 The River Nile is the major River which flows North in northeastern Africa, it’s commonly regarded as the longest river in the world. Some sources believe it’s   Amazon River as the longest .The Nile is 6,853km long, the river is a drainage basin which covers eleven countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Congo, Eritrea, South Sudan, Democratic Republican of Congo, Eritrea, South Sudan, Egypt, Rwanda Uganda and Burundi. The Nile is the source of water to Egypt and Sudan

The White Nile and Blue Nile are the two major Tributaries. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and stream if the Nile itself. Fourteen

The Blue Nile   is the source of silt and water. The white Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes regions  of central Africa ,with the most distant source still undermined  but located  in Burundi or Rwanda .it flows north through Tanzania, Uganda and south Sudan, Lake Victoria.

The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia the Blue Nile flows into Sudan from Southeast .The two rivers meet north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Nairobi.

The Northern section of the River north entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then it ends in large delta, it flows into the Mediterranean Sea, Sudanese Kingdoms, Egyptian civilization depending on the river ancient times.

The cities and the number of people living in Egypt along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along riverbanks. There was an ancient Egyptian language; the Nile called Iteru which means ‘river’.

The Nile Arabic words are the en-Nil and an-Nil both derive from the Latin Nilus and Ancient Greek.

The standard word is Blue Nile and White Nile to refer to the river source, derive from Arabic names applied only suddenness stretches which meet at Khartoum.

White Nile is a term that is used in limited sense to describe the section between Khartoum and Lake, this Nile starts in Equatorial East Africa, while the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia. Both branches of the western flanks are f East African Rift. The Nile has a drainage basin which covers 3,254,555 square Kilometers, about 10% of the area of Africa. The Nile basin is very complex, it discharges at a given point along main stem depending on   factors such as diversions, evaporation, weather, groundwater flow and evaporate-transpiration.

SOURCES

The source of the Nile is considered to be Lake Victoria, and it’s known in history, to be   the feeder of the rivers.

Kagera River, this flows into Lake Victoria near the Tanzania town of Bukoba, this is one of the longest feeders, although sources   do not agree on which is the longest tributary of the Kagera and most source of the Nile. It’s both the Ruvyironza, this emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, Nyabarongo, this flows from Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda. Both Rivers meet near Rusumo falls on Rwanda-Tanzania border.

Rukarara is described as the source which is a hacking path up steep jungle-choked Mountain slopes in the Nyungwe forest, during the dry season an appreciable incoming surface flow for many kilometers upstream, that are round new a source of  water, giving the Nile a length of 6,758km.

UGANDA.

The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza a local word meaning water at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda, as the Victoria Nile flows north for some   130 Kilometers, to Lake Kyoga .

The last part of 200kilometers river section that starts from the western shores of lake and flows at first to west until the south part of Masindi Port. Where the river runs and turns to north, then makes a great half circle to the east and north until Karuma falls. For the remaining part it flows merely westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert, where it forms the river delta.

The lake is found on the border of DRC Congo; however the Nile is not on a border river at this point. When it leaves Lake Albert, river continues north through Uganda which is known as the Albert Nile.

SOUTH SUDAN

The River flows into South Sudan just South part of Nimul, where it’s known as the Bahral jabal meaning Mountain River .south of the town with the Achwa River.

Bahr al Ghazal, is 16 kilometers long, joining the Bahr al Jabal at small lagoon called Lake No, after which Nile becomes known as Bahr al Abyad, or white Nile, from whitish clay suspended in waters. The Nile floods and leaves a rich salty deposit which fertilizes the soil. The River Nile No longer floods in Egypt ever since    the completion of the Aswan Dam in 1970.

It flows at a high rate in Bahr al Jabal at Mongalla. South Sudan is constant throughout the year and averages 1,084m3/s .After Mongalla, the Bahr Al Jabal enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region of South Sudan.

Half of the Nile water is lost in swamp to transpiration and evaporation. The flow at which the White Nile tails to the swamp is 510m3/s. It later on meets the Sobat River at Malakal. On an annual basis, the White Nile upstream of Malakal which contributes about fifteen percent of the total outflow of  the Nile River.

SUDAN

The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive, flowing north of Khartoum and meets the Blue Nile.

The River flows    to over six groups of cataracts, from the sixth at Sabaloka north of Khartoum northwards to Abu Hamed.  

In North Sudan   the river enters Lake Nasser which is commonly known as Lake Nubia, the larger part of which is in Egypt.  

EGYPT

North part of Cairo the Nile splits into   branches that feed the Mediterranean the Rosetta Branch to the west and Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta.

ATBARA RIVER

The confluence with the Blue Nile major, tributary is the Atbara River, which is halfway to the sea, this originates in Ethiopia North of Lake Tana.

Lake Victoria was sighted by the Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke arrived at its southern shore while travelling with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa; it’s located at the great lake.

Believing the source of the Nile was seen vast expanse of open water, however the Lake at first was named after then Queen of the United Kingdom.

 British explorer and missionary David Livingstone were pushed far west and entered the Congo River. However Henry Morton Stanley discovered the circumnavigating Lake Victoria the great outflow at Ripon falls at the lakes shore. The Nile is a natural navigate channel, which gives access to Khartoum and Sudan.

Economy

The Nile is used for the transportation of goods along its length, water winds blows south up river  so ships sail up river and down the river, thus using the flow river, the Egyptians still live in the Nile valley, the Aswan High Dam ended the summer floods and renewal of the fertile soil.

The Nile supports much population that live along its banks, enabling the Egyptians to live in hospitable regions of the Sahara, The Rivers flow is disturbed at several points by the cataracts at the Nile, the section is the fastest that flows with many small islands ,rocks, shallow water this forms an obstacle to  navigate the boats.

The Nile has affected the politics of East Africa and the Horn of Africa for a number of decades.

Countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya have complained about the Egyptian domination of water resource.

The Nile Basin promotes a peaceful cooperation. There are several attempts that have been made to establish agreements between countries that share the Nile waters. It’s very difficult for these countries to agree with each with self interest of the country and their strategic, political and social differences.

The Ethiopia, Rwanda, Entebbe, Tanzania and Uganda are signed a new agreement on sharing the Nile water even though the agreement raised strong opposition from Egypt and Sudan.

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