Nile, longest river in the world, located in northeastern Africa. From its principal source, Lake Victoria, in east central Africa, the Nile flows north through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of 5584 km (3470 mi). From its remotest headstream in Burundi, the river is 6,695 km (4,160 mi) long. The river basin covers an area of more than 3,349,000 sq km (more than 1,293,000 sq mi).

The Ruvyironza River of Burundi is regarded as the ultimate source of the Nile. The Ruvyironza is one of the upper branches of the Kagera River, which follows the Rwanda-Tanzania and Uganda-Tanzania borders into Lake Victoria. On leaving Lake Victoria near the now-flooded Ripon Falls, this section of the Nile, called the Victoria Nile, flows northwest for about 500 km (about 300 mi) through Lake Kyoga and then over rapids between rocky walls, until it enters Lake Albert. Leaving the northern end of Lake Albert as the Albert Nile, it flows through northern Uganda, and in Sudan becomes the Baḩr al Jabal. In south central Sudan the river flows sluggishly through the vast, swampy As Sudd. This unnavigable barrier has historically separated the Arab-dominated regions of the north from the black African regions of the south. At its junction with the Baḩr al Ghazāl, which is fed by numerous tributaries, the river becomes the White Nile (Baḩr al Abyaḑ). At the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the White Nile is joined by the Blue Nile (Baḩr al Azraq), which flows about 1370 km (about 850 mi) from its source, Lake T’ana in the Ethiopian highlands, where it is known as the Abbai. Northeast of Khartoum, the Nile is joined by the ‘Aţbarah, the last tributary to feed the river, and then makes an S-shaped bend through the Nubian Desert. Downstream from Khartoum, the Nile passes through six cataracts (waterfalls), five in Sudan and one in Egypt, near Aswān. Separating into the Rosetta and Damietta branches north of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the Nile enters the Mediterranean Sea through a 250 km- (160 mi-) wide delta. The landscape along the river varies from rain forests and mountains in the south to savannas and swamps in southern Sudan to barren deserts in the north. Fish found in the Nile include Nile perch and tilapia. Among wildlife, hippopotamuses are common in the upper Nile, while crocodiles are found throughout the river’s length.

Irrigation along much of the river supports the growth of agricultural products such as cotton, wheat, sorghum, dates, citrus fruits, sugarcane, and various legumes. Local communities fish its waters. Ferries and barges navigate between Aswān and Qinā in Egypt, between the third and fourth cataracts in northern Sudan, from Juba to Kūstī in southern Sudan, and on Lakes Nasser and Victoria. Principal river ports are Luxor and Aswān in Egypt and WādīḨalfā’, Dunqulah, Kuraymah, Kūstī, Malakāl and Juba in Sudan. Tourism is important around ancient Egyptian sites near the river, such as Al Karnak and the pyramids at Giza.

To raise water levels for irrigation in the late 19th century, several dams were built across the Egyptian Nile, the most important being at Qinā, Asyūţ, and north of Cairo. The first dam on the Nile, the Aswān Dam, was built in 1902 and heightened in 1936. The Sennar Dam was built across the Blue Nile south of Khartoum following World War I (1914-1918) to provide irrigation water for Sudanese cotton plantations. Hydroelectric dams were constructed at Jabal al Awliyā’ on the White Nile (1937), Owen Falls in Uganda (1954), and Roseires on the Blue Nile (1962). The Aswān High Dam, completed in 1970, impounds one of the world’s largest reservoirs, Lake Nasser. Annual summer flooding of the Nile once deposited rich sediment along its banks, creating fertile farmland. However, the dams now control the flooding, drastically reducing sedimentation and fertility. The dams’ environmental impact has been profound, as stretches of the river above the dams have become clogged with silt, and decreased flooding has led to increased erosion and greater salt content in the soil and water of the delta. Local communities and ancient sites in Egypt and Sudan were either submerged or relocated because of the dams.

The first great African civilization developed in the northern Nile Valley in about 5000 bc. Dependent on agriculture, this state, called Egypt, relied on the flooding of the Nile for irrigation and new soils. It dominated vast areas of northeastern Africa for millennia. Ruled by Egypt for about 1800 years, the Kush region of northern Sudan subjugated Egypt in the 8th century bc. Pyramids, temples, and other monuments of these civilizations blanket the river valley in Egypt and northern Sudan.

Until the middle of the 1800s, the source of the Nile was one of the world’s great mysteries. Ancient Greeks wrote that the river originated in snowcapped highlands. Noted Western explorers of the Nile include British explorers John Hanning Speke, who reached Lake Victoria in 1858, and Samuel White Baker, who sighted Lake Albert in 1864; German explorer Georg August Schweinfurth explored the Baḩr al Ghazāl between 1868 and 1871. An Anglo-American, Henry Morton Stanley, circumnavigated Lake Victoria in 1875 and explored Lake Edward and the Ruwenzori Range in 1889.

 European powers gained control over most of the countries of the Nile basin in the late 19th century. Britain established its power in Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya; Germany ruled what are now Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi; and Belgium governed what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). After World War I (1914-1918) German territory was divided between Britain and Belgium, with Britain controlling Tanzania, and Belgium gaining Rwanda and Burundi. Ethiopia remained an independent state. European power in Egypt and Sudan ended in the 1950s and elsewhere in the 1960s. The 1959 Nile Waters Agreement resolved an international dispute concerning the equitable division of the river’s water among the countries of the region.

Contributed By:
Randall Arlin Fegley, PhD, Instructor of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University

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