The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The longest river in Africa, it has historically been considered the longest river in the world, though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer.
Length: 6,650 km
Discharge: 2,830 m³/s
Mouth: Mediterranean Sea
Sources: Blue Nile River, White Nile, Atbara
Countries: Egypt, Sudan
The Nile River’s basin spans across the countries of Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. The Nile is composed of two tributaries: the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile, which is the longer of the two, begins at Lake Victoria in Tanzania and flows north until it reaches Khartoum, Sudan, where it converges with the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile begins near Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt.
Blue Nile River, Arabic Al-Nīl Al-Azraq or Al-Baḥr Al-Azraq, Amharic Abāy, headstream of the Nile River and source of almost 70 percent of its floodwater at Khartoum. It reputedly rises as the Abāy from a spring 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) above sea level, near Lake Tana in northwestern Ethiopia. The river flows into and out of the lake, runs through a series of rapids, and then drops into a gorge. It flows through a deep canyon southeast and west around the Choke Mountains and then turns northwest through Sudan to join the White Nile at Khartoum. Its length is about 907 miles (1,460 km). By far the greater part of the Blue Nile’s waters come from such tributaries as the Dinder and Rahad rivers, which rise in the Ethiopian highlands. The Al-Ruṣayriṣ and Sannār dams in Sudan irrigate 1,000,000 acres (400,000 hectares) in the plain of Al-Jazīrah (Gezira) between the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers; the Sannār Dam also produces hydroelectric power.
The name Nile is derived from the Greek Neilos (Latin: Nilus), which probably originated from the Semitic root naḥal, meaning a valley or a river valley and hence, by an extension of the meaning, a river. The fact that the Nile—unlike other great rivers known to them—flowed from the south northward and was in flood at the warmest time of the year was an unsolved mystery to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. The ancient Egyptians called the river Ar or Aur (Coptic: Euro), “Black,” in allusion to the color of the sediments carried by the river when it is in flood. Nile mud is black enough to have given the land itself its oldest name, Kem or Kemi, which also means “black” and signifies darkness. In the Odyssey, the epic poem written by the Greek poet Homer (7th century BCE), Aigyptos is the name of the Nile (masculine) as well as the country of Egypt (feminine) through which it flows. The Nile in Egypt and Sudan is now called Al-Nīl, Al-Baḥr, and Baḥr Al-Nīl or Nahr Al-Nīl.
