What is an anabranch?

What are some nine letter words with 1st letter A?

According to SOWPODS (the combination of Scrabble dictionaries used around the world) there are 2471 words with the pattern A--------. That is, nine letter words with 1st letter A. In alphabetical order, they are: aardvarks aasvogels abactinal abamperes abandoned abandonee abandoner abasement abashedly abashless abashment abatement abattises abattoirs abbotcies abbotship abcoulomb abdicable abdicated abdicates abdicator abdominal abductees abducting abduction abductors abelmosks abernethy aberrance aberrancy aberrants aberrated aberrates abessives abetments abeyances abhenries abhorrent abhorrers abhorring abidances abidingly abilities abiogenic abjecting abjection abjointed ablations ablatival ablatives ablegates ablutions abnegated abnegates abnegator abnormals abnormity abnormous abodement aboideaus aboideaux aboiteaus aboiteaux abolished abolisher abolishes abolition abominate abondance aborigens aborigine aborigins abortions abortuary abortuses abounding abrachias abradable abradants abraiding abrasaxes abrasions abrasives abraxases abreacted abricocks abridgers abridging abrogable abrogated abrogates abrogator abrooking abruptest abruption abscessed abscesses abscinded abscising abscisins abscissae abscissas abscisses abscissin absconded absconder abseiling absentees absenters absenting absinthes absoluter absolutes absolvent absolvers absolving absorbant absorbate absorbent absorbers absorbing abstained abstainer absterged absterges abstinent abstracts abstricts abstruser absurdest absurdism absurdist absurdity abuilding abundance abundancy abusively abutilons abutments abysmally academias academics academies academism academist acalculia acalephae acalephan acalephes acanthine acanthins acanthoid acanthous acarboses acariases acariasis acaricide acaridans acaridean acaridian acarology accedence accending accension accenting accentors accentual acceptant acceptees accepters accepting acceptive acceptors accessary accessing accession accessory accidence accidents accinging accipiter acclaimed acclaimer acclimate acclivity acclivous accloying accoasted accoladed accolades accompany accompted accoraged accorages accordant accorders according accordion accosting accounted accourage accourted accouters accoutred accoutres accredits accreting accretion accretive accrewing accroides accruable accumbent accursing accusable accusably accusants accustoms aceldamas acellular acephalic acerbated acerbates acervulus acescence acescency acescents acetabula acetamide acetamids acetified acetifier acetifies acetoxyls acetylate acetylene acetylide achaenium achalasia acheniums achievers achieving achilleas achimenes achromats achromous aciculate aciculums acidemias acidfreak acidheads acidified acidifier acidifies acidities acidophil acidulate acidulent acidulous acidurias acierages acierated acierates aciniform acknowing acoluthic aconitine aconitums acosmisms acosmists acouchies acoustics acquaints acquiesce acquights acquirals acquirees acquirers acquiring acquiting acquittal acquitted acquitter acridines acridness acritarch acritical acrobatic acrodonts acrodrome acrogenic acrolects acroleins acroliths acronical acronycal acronymic acropetal acrophobe acrophony acropolis acrosomal acrosomes acrospire acrostics acroteria acrotisms acrylates actinally actinians actinides actinisms actiniums actinoids actinopod actioners actioning actionist activated activates activator activised activises activisms activists activized activizes actresses actualise actualist actualite actuality actualize actuarial actuaries actuating actuation actuators aculeated acuminate acuminous acupoints acutances acuteness acyclovir acylating acylation adamances adamantly adamsites adaptable adaptions adaptogen addeeming addendums adderwort addicting addiction addictive additions additives addlement addooming addressed addressee addresser addresses addressor adducible adducting adduction adductive adductors ademption adenoidal adenomata adenosine adeptness adessives adherable adherence adherends adherents adhesions adhesives adhibited adhocracy adiabatic adiaphora adipocere adipocyte adiposity adjacence adjacency adjacents adjective adjoining adjourned adjudging adjunctly adjusters adjusting adjustive adjustors adjutages adjutancy adjutants adjuvancy adjuvants admeasure adminicle admirable admirably admiralty admirance admission admissive admittees admitters admitting admixture admonitor adnascent adnations adnominal adobelike adonising adonizing adoptable adoptions adoptious adoration adoringly adornment adpressed adpresses adreading adrenalin adrenally adroitest adscripts adsorbate adsorbent adsorbers adsorbing adularias adulating adulation adulators adulatory adulterer adulthood adultlike adultness adultress adumbrate aduncated advancers advancing advantage advecting advection advective adventive adventure adverbial adversary adversely adversest adversity advertent adverting advertise advertize adviceful advisable advisably advisedly advisings advocaats advocated advocates advocator advoutrer advowsons adwarding adynamias aedicules aegirines aegirites aeglogues aegrotats aeolipile aeolipyle aepyornis aequorins aerations aerialist aeriality aerifying aerobatic aerobiont aerobombs aerobrake aerobuses aerodarts aerodrome aeroducts aerodynes aerofoils aerograms aerograph aerolites aeroliths aerolitic aerologic aeromancy aerometer aerometry aeromotor aeronauts aeronomer aeronomic aeropause aerophagy aerophobe aerophone aerophore aerophyte aeroplane aeropulse aeroscope aeroshell aerospace aerostats aerotaxes aerotaxis aerotones aerotrain aesculins aestheses aesthesia aesthesis aesthetes aesthetic aestivate aethereal aetiology affearing affecters affecting affection affective affeering afferents affianced affiances affidavit affiliate affirmant affirmers affirming affixable affixment affixture afflation afflicted afflicter affluence affluency affluents affluenza affluxion affoorded afforcing affording afforests affrapped affrayers affraying affrended affricate affrights affronted affrontee affusions aflatoxin aforehand aforesaid aforetime afterbody aftercare afterclap afterdamp afterdeck aftereyed aftereyes aftergame afterglow afterheat afterings afterlife aftermath aftermost afternoon afterpain afterpeak aftershow aftersuns aftertime afterward afterword agaceries agalactia agallochs agalwoods agamogony agateware agatising agatizing agelastic agelessly agenesias agenising agenizing agentings agentival agentives agentries ageratums aggracing aggrading aggrating aggravate aggregate aggressed aggresses aggressor aggrieved aggrieves agileness agilities agiotages agistment agitating agitation agitative agitators agitprops aglossate aglossias aglycones agnathans agnathous agnatical agnations agnominal agnostics agonising agonistes agonistic agonizing agraphias agrarians agreeable agreeably agreement agrements agrestial agriology agrodolce agrologic agronomic agrypnias agterskot aguacates agueweeds ahistoric ahungered ahuruhuru aigrettes aiguilles ailanthic ailanthus aimlessly airbricks airbursts airbusses airchecks airdromes airfields airframes airgraphs airheaded airlifted airliners airmailed airmobile airplanes airpowers airproofs airscapes airscrews airshafts airspaces airspeeds airstream airstrike airstrips airworthy aisleless aisleways aitchbone akaryotes akaryotic akathisia akinesias akoluthos alabamine alabaster alachlors alackaday alaiments alalagmoi alalagmos alarmable alarmedly alarmisms alarmists alaruming alastrims albacores albarelli albarello albatross albertite albescent albespine albespyne albicores albinisms albinoism albinotic albitical albitised albitises albitized albitizes albizzias albricias albumoses alburnous alburnums albuterol alcahests alcarraza alchemies alchemise alchemist alchemize alchymies alcoholic alcolocks aldehydes aldehydic aldicarbs aldolases aldoximes aleatoric alecithal alectryon alehouses alembroth alertness aleurones aleuronic alewashed alexander alfaquins alfereces alfilaria alfileria algaecide algarobas algarroba algarrobo algebraic algerines algicidal algicides algidness alginates algometer algometry algorisms algorithm alguacils alguazils aliasings alicyclic alienable alienages alienated alienates alienator alienisms alienists alienness aligartas alighting alignment alikeness alimental alimented alimonied alimonies alinement aliphatic aliteracy aliterate aliveness alizarine alizarins alkahests alkalised alkaliser alkalises alkalized alkalizer alkalizes alkaloids alkaloses alkalosis alkalotic alkannins alkoxides alkylated alkylates allanites allantoic allantoid allantoin allantois allatives allayings allayment allcomers alledging allegedly allegging allegiant allegoric allelisms alleluiah alleluias allemande allenarly allergens allergics allergies allergins allergist allerions allethrin alleviant alleviate alleycats alleyways alliances allicholy alligarta alligated alligates alligator allnesses allocable allocarpy allocated allocates allocator allodiums allogenic allograft allograph allomeric allometry allomones allomorph allopaths allopathy allopatry allophane allophone alloplasm allosaurs allostery allotment allotrope allotropy allottees allotters allottery allotting allotypes allotypic allowable allowably allowance allowedly allozymes allspices allusions alluvials alluvions alluviums almagests almanacks almandine almandite almonries almsgiver almshouse almswoman almswomen alocasias aloneness alongside aloofness alopecias alopecoid alpargata alpenglow alpenhorn alphabets alphasort alpinisms alpinists altarages altarwise alterable alterably alterants altercate alternant alternate alternats altigraph altimeter altimetry altiplano altissimo altitudes altricial altruisms altruists aluminate aluminise aluminium aluminize aluminous aluminums alumroots alumstone alvearies alveolars alveolate amadavats amandines amanitins amaranths amarantin amarelles amarettos amaryllid amaryllis amassable amassment amatively amatorial amatorian amauroses amaurosis amaurotic amazement amazingly amazonian amazonite ambagious ambassage ambassies ambatches ambergris amberinas amberites amberjack amberoids ambiances ambiences ambiguity ambiguous ambipolar ambitions ambitious ambiverts amblyopia amblyopic ambrosial ambrosian ambrosias ambrotype ambulacra ambulance ambulants ambulated ambulates ambulator ambulette ambuscade ambuscado ambushers ambushing amebiases amebiasis amebocyte ameerates amelcorns amenaging amenaunce amendable amendment amenities americium amethysts ametropia ametropic amianthus amidogens amidships aminities amissible amitroles ammocetes ammocoete ammonates ammoniacs ammoniate ammonical ammonites ammonitic ammoniums ammonoids amnesiacs amnestied amnesties amniotomy amoebaean amoralism amoralist amorality amorances amorettos amoristic amornings amorosity amorously amorphism amorphous amortised amortises amortized amortizes amounting amourette ampassies amperages ampersand amperzand amphibian amphibole amphiboly amphigory amphioxus amphipath amphipods ampholyte ampleness amplidyne amplified amplifier amplifies amplitude amplosome ampullary amputated amputates amputator amsinckia amuseable amusement amusettes amusingly amygdalae amygdalas amygdales amygdalin amygdules amylogens amyloidal amylopsin amyotonia anabaenas anabantid anabioses anabiosis anabiotic anabolism anabolite anabranch anacharis anaclinal anaclises anaclisis anaclitic anacondas anacruses anacrusis anaerobes anaerobia anaerobic anaglyphs anaglyphy anagogies analcimes analcimic analcites analectic analemmas analeptic analgesia analgesic analgetic analities analogies analogise analogism analogist analogize analogons analogous analogues analysand analysers analysing analytics analyzers analyzing anamneses anamnesis anamniote anandrous ananthous anapaests anapestic anaphases anaphasic anaphoral anaphoras anaphoric anaplasia anaplasty anaptyxes anaptyxis anarchial anarchies anarchise anarchism anarchist anarchize anarthria anarthric anasarcas anastases anastasis anastatic anathemas anatomies anatomise anatomist anatomize anatoxins ancestors ancestral anchorage anchoress anchorets anchoring anchorite anchorman anchormen anchoveta anchovies anchusins anchylose ancienter anciently ancientry ancillary ancipital ancresses andantini andantino andesines andesites andesitic andesytes andouille andradite androecia androgens androgyne androgyny andrology andromeda anecdotal anecdotes anecdotic anecdyses anecdysis anelastic anemogram anemology anestrous anetholes aneuploid aneurisms aneurysms angashore angekkoks angelfish angelhood angelical angelicas angeluses angerless angiogram angiology angiomata angklungs angledugs anglepods anglesite anglewise angleworm anglicise anglicism anglicist anglicize anglified anglifies anglophil angophora angostura angriness angstiest angstroms anguiform anguipede anguished anguishes angularly angulated angulates anhedonia anhedonic anhungred anhydrase anhydride anhydrite anhydrous aniconism aniconist anidroses anidrosis anilingus anilities animacies animalian animalier animalise animalism animalist animality animalize animately animaters animatics animating animation animatism animatist animators animistic animosity anisettes anisogamy ankerites anklebone ankylosed ankyloses ankylosis ankylotic annalised annalises annalists annalized annalizes annealers annealing annectent annelidan annexable annexions annexment annexures annotated annotates annotator announced announcer announces annoyance annualise annualize annuitant annuities annularly annulated annulates annulling annulment annuluses anodising anodizing anodontia anoestrum anoestrus anointers anointing anomalies anomalous anonymise anonymity anonymize anonymous anoopsias anopheles anorectal anorectic anoretics anorexias anorexics anorexies anorthite anosmatic anovulant anoxaemia anoxaemic anoxemias anserines answerers answering antalgics antalkali antarctic anteaters anteceded antecedes antechoir antedated antedates antefixae antefixal antefixes antelopes antelucan antenatal antennary antennule antepasts anterooms antetypes anteverts anthelion antheming anthemion antherids anthocarp anthocyan anthodium anthology anthotaxy anthozoan anthozoic anthraces anthracic anthraxes anthropic anthurium antiabuse antiaging antialien antiarins antiarmor antiatoms antiauxin antiblack antibuser antically antichlor anticised anticises anticivic anticized anticizes anticking anticline anticling anticodon anticrack anticrime anticults antidotal antidoted antidotes antidraft antidunes antielite antifraud antigenes antigenic antiglare antigraft antihelix antihuman antikings antiknock antilabor antilifer antimacho antimasks antimeres antimeric antimonic antimonyl antimuons antimusic antimycin antinodal antinodes antinoise antinomes antinomic antinovel antinuker antinukes antipapal antiparty antipasti antipasto antipathy antiphons antiphony antipodal antipodes antipolar antipoles antipopes antipress antipyics antiquark antiquary antiquate antiquely antiquers antiquing antiquity antiradar antiroyal antirusts antiscian antisense antiserum antishark antishock antisleep antismoke antisnobs antisolar antispast antistate antistats antistick antistory antistyle antitheft antithets antitoxic antitoxin antitrade antitragi antitrust antitumor antitypal antitypes antitypic antiulcer antiunion antiurban antivenin antivenom antiviral antivirus antiwhite antiwoman antiworld antonymic antsiness antwackie anucleate anvilling anviltops anxieties anxiously anybodies anythings anywheres apartheid apartment apartness apathaton apathetic apatosaur aperients aperiodic aperitifs aperitive apertness apertural apertured apertures apetalies apetalous aphanites aphanitic aphasiacs aphelions aphereses apheresis apheretic aphetised aphetises aphetized aphetizes aphicides aphidians aphidious apholates aphorised aphoriser aphorises aphorisms aphorists aphorized aphorizer aphorizes aphrodite aphyllies aphyllous apiaceous apiarians apiarists apiculate apimanias apishness apivorous aplanatic aplanetic aplustres apneustic apocopate apocrypha apodictic apoenzyme apogamies apogamous apographs apologiae apologias apologies apologise apologist apologize apologues apomictic apophases apophasis apophatic apophyges apophyses apophysis apoplasts apoplexed apoplexes apoptoses apoptosis apoptotic apositias aposporic apostates apostatic apostille apostolic apotheces apothecia apothegms appairing appalling appaloosa appanaged appanages apparatus appareled apparency apparents apparitor appeached appeaches appealers appealing appearers appearing appeasers appeasing appellant appellate appellees appellors appendage appendant appendent appending apperills appertain appestats appetence appetency appetible appetised appetiser appetises appetites appetized appetizer appetizes applauded applauder applauses applecart applejack appliable appliance applicant applicate appliqued appliques appointed appointee appointer appointor apportion apposable appraisal appraised appraisee appraiser appraises apprehend appressed appresses apprisers apprising apprizers apprizing approbate approvals approvers approving appulsive apricated apricates apricocks apriorism apriorist apriority apronfuls apronlike apsarases apsidiole apterisms apteryxes aptitudes aptnesses apyrexias aquabatic aquaboard aquacades aquadrome aquafarms aqualungs aquanauts aquaphobe aquaplane aquaporin aquarelle aquarians aquariist aquarists aquariums aquarobic aquashows aquatinta aquatints aquatones aqueducts aqueously aquilegia arabesque arabicise arabicize arability arabinose arabising arabizing arachises arachnids arachnoid aragonite araneidan arapaimas arapongas arapungas araucaria arbalests arbalists arbelests arbitrage arbitrary arbitrate arbitress arbitrium arblaster arboreous arboretum arborised arborises arborists arborized arborizes arboviral arbovirus arbuscles arbutuses arcadians arcadings arcanists arcatures arccosine archaeans archaical archaised archaiser archaises archaisms archaists archaized archaizer archaizes archangel archducal archduchy archdukes archenemy archeress archeries archetype archfiend archicarp archilowe archimage architect architype archiving archivist archivolt archlutes archology archontic archosaur archrival arcograph arcsecond arctophil arcuately arcuation ardencies arduously areaching arecoline arenation areolated areometer areostyle arethusas argemones argentine argentite argentous argentums argillite arginases arginines argonauts argufiers argufying argumenta arguments argyrites arhatship arhythmia arhythmic aridities arillated arillodes aristotle armadillo armagnacs armaments armatured armatures armchairs armigeral armigeros armillary armistice armlocked armonicas armorials armorists armorless armourers armouries armouring armozeens armozines armyworms arointing aromatase aromatics aromatise aromatize arousable aroynting arpeggios arpillera arracacha arraigned arraigner arrangers arranging arrasenes arrayment arrearage arreeding arrestant arrestees arresters arresting arrestive arrestors arrivance arrivancy arrivisme arriviste arrogance arrogancy arrogated arrogates arrogator arrowhead arrowless arrowlike arrowroot arrowwood arrowworm arseholes arsenates arseniate arsenical arsenides arsenious arsenites arsonists arsonites artefacts artemisia arterials arteriole arteritis arthritic arthritis arthrodia arthropod arthroses arthrosis artichoke articling articular artifacts artificer artifices artillery artisanal artlessly artsiness aruspices arvicoles aryballos arytenoid arythmias asafetida asbestine asbestous ascarides ascendant ascendent ascenders ascendeur ascending ascension ascensive ascertain ascetical ascidians ascidiate ascitical asclepiad asclepias ascocarps ascogonia ascorbate ascospore ascribing asepalous asexually ashamedly ashlaring ashlering ashplants ashramite asininely asininity askancing askanting askewness asmoulder asparagus aspartame aspartate aspecting aspectual asperated asperates aspergers aspergill asperging aspermias aspersers aspersing aspersion aspersive aspersoir aspersors aspersory asphalted asphalter asphaltic asphaltum asphodels asphyxial asphyxias asphyxies aspidioid aspirants aspiratae aspirated aspirates aspirator asplenium asporting assagaied assailant assailers assailing assarting assassins assaulted assaulter assayable assayings assegaais assegaied assembled assembler assembles assenters assenting assentive assentors asserters asserting assertion assertive assertors assertory assessing assessors assetless assevered assiduity assiduous assieging assientos assignats assignees assigners assigning assignors assistant assisters assisting assistive assistors associate assoiling assoilzie assonance assonants assonated assonates assorters assorting assortive assotting assuagers assuaging assuasive assuetude assumable assumably assumedly assumings assumpsit assurable assurance assuredly assurgent asswaging astarting astatides astatines asterisks asterisms asteroids asterting asthenias asthenics asthenies asthmatic astichous astigmias astomatal astonying astounded astrachan astraddle astragali astragals astrakhan astrantia astricted astringed astringer astringes astrocyte astrodome astrofell astrolabe astrology astronaut astronomy astrophel astucious astunning asyllabic asymmetry asymptote asynapses asynapsis asyndetic asyndeton asynergia asystoles asystolic atabrines atacamite atamascos ataractic ataraxias ataraxics ataraxies atavistic atchieved atchieves atemporal atenolols atheising atheistic atheizing athelings athematic athenaeum atheneums atheology atherines atheromas atheteses athetesis athetised athetises athetized athetizes athetoses athetosic athetosis athetotic athletics athrocyte atmolysed atmolyses atmolysis atmolyzed atmolyzes atmometer atmometry atomicity atomisers atomising atomistic atomizers atomizing atonalism atonalist atonality atoneable atonement atonicity atoningly atraments atrazines atrocious atrophias atrophied atrophies atropines atropisms attachers attaching attackers attacking attackman attackmen attainder attainers attaining attainted attasking attempers attempted attempter attendant attendees attenders attending attentats attention attentive attenuant attenuate attercops attestant attesters attesting attestors atticised atticises atticisms atticists atticized atticizes attirings attitudes attolaser attollens attollent attorneys attorning attracted attracter attractor attrahens attrahent attrapped attribute attristed attriting attrition attritive attritted attuiting attuition attuitive aubergine aubretias aubrietas aubrietia auctioned auctorial audacious audibling audiences audiencia audiobook audiogram audiology audiophil audiotape audiphone auditable auditions auditives auditoria auditress augmented augmenter augmentor augurship augustest aularians aulnagers aumailing aunthoods auntliest aureately aureities aurelians aureoling auriculae auricular auriculas aurifying auriscope aurochses aurorally ausformed auslander auspicate austenite austerely austerest austerity australes australis autacoids autarchic autarkies autarkist autecious autecisms auteurism auteurist authentic authoress authorial authoring authorise authorish authorism authority authorize autistics autobahns autobuses autocades autocarps autocidal autoclave autocoids autocracy autocrats autocrime autocrine autocross autocutie autocycle autodynes autoecism autoflare autofocus autogamic autogenic autogiros autograft autograph autoguide autogyros autoharps autoicous autolatry autolysed autolyses autolysin autolysis autolytic autolyzed autolyzes automaker automated automates automatic automaton autometer autonomic autophagy autophoby autophony autophyte autopilot autopista autopoint autopsias autopsied autopsies autopsist autoroute autoscopy autosomal autosomes autospore autotelic autotimer autotomic autotoxic autotoxin autotroph autotunes autotyped autotypes autotypic autunites auxiliars auxiliary auxocytes auxometer auxospore auxotonic auxotroph avadavats available availably avalanche avantists avascular avaunting avengeful aventaile aventails aventring aventures aventurin averagely averaging averments averrable aversions aversives avertable avertedly avertible avianised avianises avianized avianizes aviarists aviations aviatress aviatrice avidities avifaunae avifaunal avifaunas avigators avirulent avisandum avisement avizandum avizefull avocadoes avocation avoidable avoidably avoidance avoisions avouchers avouching avouterer avoutrers avoutries avulsions avuncular awakeners awakening awardable awareness awesomely awestrike awestruck awfullest awfulness awkwarder awkwardly axilemmas axiomatic axletrees axolemmas axoplasms ayahuasca ayahuasco ayatollah ayenbites ayurvedas ayurvedic azedarach azeotrope azeotropy azimuthal azotaemia azotaemic azotemias azotising azotizing azoturias

What is the hystory of transport on the Nile?

The Nile (Arabic: النيل&lrm;, 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] However, recent findings suggest that the Amazon River may be longer.[2]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.Contents[hide]1 Etymology of the word Nile2 Tributaries and distributaries 2.1 White Nile2.2 Blue Nile2.3 Lost headwaters3 Politics4 Hydrology5 History 5.1 The Eonile5.2 The integrated Nile5.3 Role in the founding of Egyptian civilization5.4 The search for the source of the Nile5.5 Modern achievements6 Crossings7 Gallery8 Media9 See also10 References11 External linksEtymology of the word NileThe word "Nile"(Arabic: 'nīl) comes from the Greek word Neilos (Νειλο&sigmaf;), 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).[3] 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 and distributariesEast Africa, showing the course of the Nile River, with the "Blue" and "White" Niles marked in those coloursThe drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometres (1,256,591 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Africa.[4]There are two great tributaries of the Nile, joining at Khartoum: 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. Below the Blue and White Nile confluence the only remaining major tributary is the Atbara River, which originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana, and is around 800 kilometres (500 mi) long. It flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very fast. It joins the Nile approximately 300 kilometres (200 mi) north of Khartoum.The Nile is unusual in that its last tributary (the Atbara) joins it roughly halfway to the sea. From that point north, the Nile diminishes because of evaporation.The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over 6 groups of cataracts, from the first at Aswan to the sixth at Sabaloka (just north of Khartoum) and then turns to flow southward for a good portion of its course, before again returning to flow north to the sea. This is called the "Great Bend of the Nile."North of Cairo, the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the Rosetta Branch to the west and the Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta.White NileMain article: White NileThe 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 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 Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda, as the Victoria Nile. It flows for approximately 500 kilometres (300 mi) 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"). The Bahr al Ghazal, itself 716 kilometres (445 mi) long, joins the Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called Lake No, after which the Nile becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad, or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. When the Nile flooded it left this rich material named silt. The Ancient Egyptians used this soil to farm. From Lake No, the river flows to Khartoum. An anabranch river called Bahr el Zeraf flows out of the Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile.The term "White Nile" is used in both a general sense, referring to the entire river above Khartoum, and a limited sense, the section between Lake No and Khartoum.Blue NileMain article: Blue NileThe 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 kilometres (870 mi) 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[5] 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.Lost headwatersFormerly Lake Tanganyika drained northwards along the African Rift Valley into the Albert Nile, making the Nile about 900 miles (1,400 km) longer, until blocked in Miocene times by the bulk of the Virunga Volcanoes. See List of rivers by length.PoliticsComposite satellite image of the White Nile (see also the Nile delta)The usage of the Nile River has been vastly associated with East and horn of African politics for many decades. Various countries, including Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have complained about the Egyptian domination of the Nile water resources. The Nile Basin Initiative was one of the most important programs to promote equal usage and peaceful cooperation between the "Nile Basin States." [6] Yet many fear, the Egyptian domination of the waters still causes massive economic obstacles in the area.The Nile still supports much of the population living along its banks, with the Egyptians living in otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river flooded every summer, depositing fertile silt on the plains. The flow of the river is disturbed at several points by cataracts, which are sections of faster-flowing water with many small islands, shallow water, and rocks, forming an obstacle to navigation by boats. The Sudd wetlands in Sudan also forms a formidable obstacle for navigation and flow of water, to the extent that Sudan had once attempted to dig a canal (the Jonglei Canal) to bypass this stagnant mass of water.[7]The Nile was, and still is, used to transport goods to different places along its long path; especially since winter winds in this area blow up river, the ships could travel up with no work by using the sail, and down using the flow of the river. While most Egyptians still live in the Nile valley, the construction of the Aswan High Dam (finished in 1970) to provide hydroelectricity ended the summer floods and their renewal of the fertile soil.Cities on the Nile include Khartoum, Aswan, Luxor (Thebes), and the Giza - Cairo conurbation. The first cataract, the closest to the mouth of the river, is at Aswan to the north of the Aswan Dams. The Nile north of Aswan is a regular tourist route, with cruise ships and traditional wooden sailing boats known as feluccas. In addition, many "floating hotel" cruise boats ply the route between Luxor and Aswan, stopping in at Edfu and Kom Ombo along the way. It used to be possible to sail on these boats all the way from Cairo to Aswan, but security concerns have shut down the northernmost portion for many years.More recently, drought during the 1980s led to widespread starvation in Ethiopia and Sudan but Egypt was protected from drought by water impounded in Lake Nasser. Beginning in the 1980s techniques of analysis using hydrology transport models have been used in the Nile to analyze water quality.HydrologyThe Nile makes its way through the SaharaThe flow rate of the Albert Nile at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages 1,048 m³/s (37,000 cu ft/s). After Mongalla, the Nile is known as the Bahr El Jebel which enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region of Sudan. More than half of the Nile's water is lost in this swamp to evaporation and transpiration. The average flow rate in the Bahr El Jebel at the tails of the swamps is about 510 m³/s (18,000 cu ft/s). From here it soon meets with the Sobat River and forms the White Nile.The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of drainage area and discharge. The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 square kilometres (200,000 sq mi) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m³/s (71 cu ft/s) annually, due to tremendous volumes of water being lost in the Sudd wetlands. The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, 225,000 km² (86,900 sq mi), but contributes 412 cubic metres per second (14,500 cu ft/s) annually to the Nile.[8] When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's color.[9]The average flow of the White Nile at Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is 924 m³/s (32,600 cu ft/s), the peak flow is approximately 1,218 m³/s (43,000 cu ft/s) in early March and minimum flow is about 609 m³/s (21,500 cu ft/s) in late August. The fluctuation there is due the substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat which has a minimum flow of about 99 m³/s (3,500 cu ft/s) in August and a peak flow of over 680 m³/s (24,000 cu ft/s) in early March.From here the White Nile flows to Khartoum where it merges with the Blue Nile to form the Nile River. Further upstream the Atbara River, the last significant Nile tributary, merges with the Nile. During the dry season (January to June) the White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile. During this period of time the natural discharge of the Blue Nile can be as low as 113 m³/s (4,000 cu ft/s), although upstream dams regulate the flow of the river. During the dry period, there will typically be no flow from the Atbara River.The Blue Nile contributes approximately 80-90% of the Nile River discharge. The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. During the wet season the peak flow of the Blue Nile will often exceed 5,663 m³/s (2.0E+5 cu ft/s) in latter August (variation by a factor of 50).Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by a factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over 8,212 m³/s (290,000 cu ft/s) would occur during the later portions of August and early September and minimum flows of about 552 m³/s (19,500 cu ft/s) would occur during later April and early May. The Nile basin is complex, and because of this, the discharge at any given point along the mainstem depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation/evapotranspiration, and groundwater flow.HistoryThe confluence of the Kagera and Ruvubu rivers near Rusumo Falls, part of the Nile's upper reaches.The Nile (iteru in Ancient Egyptian) was the lifeline of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the Stone Age. Climate change, or perhaps overgrazing, desiccated the pastoral lands of Egypt to form the Sahara desert, possibly as long ago as 8000 BC, and the inhabitants then presumably migrated to the river, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and a more centralized society.The river Nile froze twice in recorded history, in 829[10][11] and 1010.[12]The EonileThe present Nile is at least the fifth river that has flowed north from the Ethiopian Highlands. Satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. An Eonile canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents an ancestral Nile called the Eonile that flowed during the later Miocene (23-5.3 million years before the present). The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean, where several gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.During the late-Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred feet below world ocean level at Aswan and 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below Cairo. This huge canyon is now full of later sediment.Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. That would have made the Nile much longer, with its longest headwaters in northern Zambia.The integrated NileThere are two theories in relation to the age of the integrated Nile. The first one is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age, that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly (the Proto Nile basin) feeding a river following the present course of the Nile in Egypt and in the far north of the Sudan.[13] Said (1981) stresses the fact that Egypt itself supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile and the Atbara/Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times.[14]Salama (1987) suggested that during the Tertiary there were a series of separate closed continental basins, each basin occupying one of the major Sudanese Rift System: Mellut Rift, White Nile Rift, Blue Nile Rift, Atbara Rift and Sag El Naam Rift.[15] The Mellut Rift Basin is nearly 12 km deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamps which forms the central part of the Basin is possibly still subsiding. The White Nile Rift System, although shallower than Bahr El Arab, is about 9 km deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5-9 km. These basins were not interconnected except after their subsidence ceased and the rate of sediment deposition was enough to fill up the basins to such a level that would allow connection to take place. The filling up of the depressions led to the connection of the Egyptian Nile with the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial head waters during the latest stages of tectonic activities of Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift Systems.[16] The connection of the different Niles occurred during the cyclic wet periods. The River Atbara overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods which occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years B.P. The Blue Nile was connected to the main Nile during the 70,000-80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile some 12,500 years B.P.Role in the founding of Egyptian civilizationReconstruction of the Oikoumene (inhabited world) ancient map based on Herodotus' description of the world, circa 450 BCE.Sustenance played a crucial role in the founding of Egyptian civilization. The Nile is an unending source of sustenance. The Nile made the land surrounding it extremely fertile when it flooded or was inundated annually. The Egyptians were able to cultivate wheat and crops around the Nile, providing food for the general population. Also, the Nile's water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels. These animals could be killed for meat, or could be captured, tamed and used for ploughing - or in the camels' case, travelling. Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a convenient and efficient way of transportation for people and goods.Dhows on the NileThe structure of Egypt's society made it one of the most stable in history. In fact, it might easily have surpassed many modern societies. This stability was an immediate result of the Nile's fertility. The Nile also provided flax for trade. Wheat was also traded, a crucial crop in the Middle East where famine was very common. This trading system secured the diplomatic relationship Egypt had with other countries, and often contributed to Egypt's economic stability. Also, the Nile provided the resources such as food or money, to quickly and efficiently raise an army for offensive or defensive roles.The Nile played a major role in politics and social life. The pharaoh would supposedly flood the Nile, and in return for the life-giving water and crops, the peasants would cultivate the fertile soil and send a portion of the resources they had reaped to the Pharaoh. He or she would in turn use it for the well-being of Egyptian society.The Nile was a source of spiritual dimension. The Nile was so significant to the lifestyle of the Egyptians, that they created a god dedicated to the welfare of the Nile's annual inundation. The god's name was Hapi, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding of the Nile River. Also, the Nile was considered as a causeway from life to death and afterlife. The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god Ra, the sun, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each time he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were located west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they must be buried on the side that symbolized death.The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that 'Egypt was the gift of the Nile', and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years.That far-reaching trade has been carried on along the Nile since ancient times can be seen from the Ishango bone, possibly the earliest known indication of Ancient Egyptian multiplication, which was discovered along the headwaters of the Nile River (near Lake Edward, in northeastern Congo) and was carbon-dated to 20,000 BC.The search for the source of the NileThe Great Bend of the Nile in Sudan, looking north across the Sahara Desert towards Northern Sudan.Despite the attempts of the Greeks and Romans (who were unable to penetrate the Sudd), the upper reaches of the Nile remained largely unknown. Various expeditions had failed to determine the river's source, thus yielding classical Hellenistic and Roman representations of the river as a male god with his face and head obscured in drapery. Agatharcides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian highlands, but no European in Antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana, let alone retraced the steps of this expedition farther than Meroe.Europeans learned little new information about the origins of the Nile until the 15th and 16th centuries, when travelers to Ethiopia visited not only Lake Tana, but the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Although James Bruce claimed to have been the first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers with better knowledge give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez. Páez' account of the source of the Nile (History of Ethiopia c. 1622) was not published in full until the early 20th century. The work is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. The account is however featured in several contemporary works, including Balthazar Telles (Historia geral da Ethiopia a Alta, 1660), Athanasius Kircher (Mundus Subterraneus, 1664) and by Johann Michael Vansleb (The Present State of Egypt, 1678). Europeans had been resident in the country since the late 15th century, and it is entirely possible one of them had visited the headwaters even earlier but was unable to send a report of his discoveries out of Ethiopia. Jerónimo Lobo also describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. His account is likewise utilized by Balthazar Telles.The White Nile was even less understood, and the ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile; for example, Pliny the Elder wrote that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyles, then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for a distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." [17] A merchant named Diogenes reported the Nile's water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels.Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore whilst on his journey with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. The well known British explorer and missionary David Livingstone failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately the Welsh explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the Lake's northern shore. It was on this journey that Stanley was said to have greeted the British explorer with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" upon discovering the Scotsman ill and despondent in his camp on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.Modern achievementsThe Nile passes through Cairo, Egypt's capital cityThe White Nile Expedition, led by South African national Hendri Coetzee, became the first to navigate the Nile's entire length. The expedition took off from the source of the Nile in Uganda on January 17, 2004 and arrived safely at the Mediterranean in Rosetta, 4 months and 2 weeks later. National Geographic released a feature film about the expedition towards in late 2005 entitled The Longest River.On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film "Mystery of the Nile", and in a book of the same title. The team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005 when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power.A team led by South Africans Peter Meredith and Hendri Coetzee on 30 April 2005, became the first to navigate the most remote headstream, the remote source of the Nile, the Akagera river, which starts as the Rukarara in Nyungwe forest in Rwanda.On March 31, 2006, three explorers from Britain and New Zealand lead by Neil McGrigor claimed to have been the first to travel the river from its mouth to a new "true source" deep in Rwanda's Nyungwe rainforest. 2°16′55.92″S, 29°19′52.32″E.[18]CrossingsThis is a list of crossings from Khartoum to the Mediterranean:Aswan Bridge, AswanLuxor Bridge, Luxor1st Ring Road Bridge (Moneeb Crossing), CairoAbbas Bridge, CairoUniversity Bridge, CairoQasr El Nile Bridge, Cairo6th of October Bridge, CairoAbu El Ela Bridge, Cairo2nd Ring Road Bridge, CairoThis list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.GalleryView of the Nile from a cruiseboat, between Luxor and Aswan in EgyptA dhow traversing the Nile near AswanMarsh along the NileThe Nile in UgandaA river boat crossing the Nile in UgandaMediaScenery of the NileRiver and mountain scenery on the Nile, from hereLife on the banks of the NilePeople living on the banks of the Nile, from hereThe Nile (Arabic: النيل&lrm;, 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] However, recent findings suggest that the Amazon River may be longer.[2]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.Contents[hide]1 Etymology of the word Nile2 Tributaries and distributaries 2.1 White Nile2.2 Blue Nile2.3 Lost headwaters3 Politics4 Hydrology5 History 5.1 The Eonile5.2 The integrated Nile5.3 Role in the founding of Egyptian civilization5.4 The search for the source of the Nile5.5 Modern achievements6 Crossings7 Gallery8 Media9 See also10 References11 External linksEtymology of the word NileThe word "Nile"(Arabic: 'nīl) comes from the Greek word Neilos (Νειλο&sigmaf;), 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).[3] 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 and distributariesEast Africa, showing the course of the Nile River, with the "Blue" and "White" Niles marked in those coloursThe drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometres (1,256,591 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Africa.[4]There are two great tributaries of the Nile, joining at Khartoum: 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. Below the Blue and White Nile confluence the only remaining major tributary is the Atbara River, which originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana, and is around 800 kilometres (500 mi) long. It flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very fast. It joins the Nile approximately 300 kilometres (200 mi) north of Khartoum.The Nile is unusual in that its last tributary (the Atbara) joins it roughly halfway to the sea. From that point north, the Nile diminishes because of evaporation.The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over 6 groups of cataracts, from the first at Aswan to the sixth at Sabaloka (just north of Khartoum) and then turns to flow southward for a good portion of its course, before again returning to flow north to the sea. This is called the "Great Bend of the Nile."North of Cairo, the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the Rosetta Branch to the west and the Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta.White NileMain article: White NileThe 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 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 Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda, as the Victoria Nile. It flows for approximately 500 kilometres (300 mi) 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"). The Bahr al Ghazal, itself 716 kilometres (445 mi) long, joins the Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called Lake No, after which the Nile becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad, or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. When the Nile flooded it left this rich material named silt. The Ancient Egyptians used this soil to farm. From Lake No, the river flows to Khartoum. An anabranch river called Bahr el Zeraf flows out of the Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile.The term "White Nile" is used in both a general sense, referring to the entire river above Khartoum, and a limited sense, the section between Lake No and Khartoum.Blue NileMain article: Blue NileThe 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 kilometres (870 mi) 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[5] 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.Lost headwatersFormerly Lake Tanganyika drained northwards along the African Rift Valley into the Albert Nile, making the Nile about 900 miles (1,400 km) longer, until blocked in Miocene times by the bulk of the Virunga Volcanoes. See List of rivers by length.PoliticsComposite satellite image of the White Nile (see also the Nile delta)The usage of the Nile River has been vastly associated with East and horn of African politics for many decades. Various countries, including Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have complained about the Egyptian domination of the Nile water resources. The Nile Basin Initiative was one of the most important programs to promote equal usage and peaceful cooperation between the "Nile Basin States." [6] Yet many fear, the Egyptian domination of the waters still causes massive economic obstacles in the area.The Nile still supports much of the population living along its banks, with the Egyptians living in otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river flooded every summer, depositing fertile silt on the plains. The flow of the river is disturbed at several points by cataracts, which are sections of faster-flowing water with many small islands, shallow water, and rocks, forming an obstacle to navigation by boats. The Sudd wetlands in Sudan also forms a formidable obstacle for navigation and flow of water, to the extent that Sudan had once attempted to dig a canal (the Jonglei Canal) to bypass this stagnant mass of water.[7]The Nile was, and still is, used to transport goods to different places along its long path; especially since winter winds in this area blow up river, the ships could travel up with no work by using the sail, and down using the flow of the river. While most Egyptians still live in the Nile valley, the construction of the Aswan High Dam (finished in 1970) to provide hydroelectricity ended the summer floods and their renewal of the fertile soil.Cities on the Nile include Khartoum, Aswan, Luxor (Thebes), and the Giza - Cairo conurbation. The first cataract, the closest to the mouth of the river, is at Aswan to the north of the Aswan Dams. The Nile north of Aswan is a regular tourist route, with cruise ships and traditional wooden sailing boats known as feluccas. In addition, many "floating hotel" cruise boats ply the route between Luxor and Aswan, stopping in at Edfu and Kom Ombo along the way. It used to be possible to sail on these boats all the way from Cairo to Aswan, but security concerns have shut down the northernmost portion for many years.More recently, drought during the 1980s led to widespread starvation in Ethiopia and Sudan but Egypt was protected from drought by water impounded in Lake Nasser. Beginning in the 1980s techniques of analysis using hydrology transport models have been used in the Nile to analyze water quality.HydrologyThe Nile makes its way through the SaharaThe flow rate of the Albert Nile at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages 1,048 m³/s (37,000 cu ft/s). After Mongalla, the Nile is known as the Bahr El Jebel which enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region of Sudan. More than half of the Nile's water is lost in this swamp to evaporation and transpiration. The average flow rate in the Bahr El Jebel at the tails of the swamps is about 510 m³/s (18,000 cu ft/s). From here it soon meets with the Sobat River and forms the White Nile.The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of drainage area and discharge. The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 square kilometres (200,000 sq mi) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m³/s (71 cu ft/s) annually, due to tremendous volumes of water being lost in the Sudd wetlands. The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, 225,000 km² (86,900 sq mi), but contributes 412 cubic metres per second (14,500 cu ft/s) annually to the Nile.[8] When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's color.[9]The average flow of the White Nile at Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is 924 m³/s (32,600 cu ft/s), the peak flow is approximately 1,218 m³/s (43,000 cu ft/s) in early March and minimum flow is about 609 m³/s (21,500 cu ft/s) in late August. The fluctuation there is due the substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat which has a minimum flow of about 99 m³/s (3,500 cu ft/s) in August and a peak flow of over 680 m³/s (24,000 cu ft/s) in early March.From here the White Nile flows to Khartoum where it merges with the Blue Nile to form the Nile River. Further upstream the Atbara River, the last significant Nile tributary, merges with the Nile. During the dry season (January to June) the White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile. During this period of time the natural discharge of the Blue Nile can be as low as 113 m³/s (4,000 cu ft/s), although upstream dams regulate the flow of the river. During the dry period, there will typically be no flow from the Atbara River.The Blue Nile contributes approximately 80-90% of the Nile River discharge. The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. During the wet season the peak flow of the Blue Nile will often exceed 5,663 m³/s (2.0E+5 cu ft/s) in latter August (variation by a factor of 50).Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by a factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over 8,212 m³/s (290,000 cu ft/s) would occur during the later portions of August and early September and minimum flows of about 552 m³/s (19,500 cu ft/s) would occur during later April and early May. The Nile basin is complex, and because of this, the discharge at any given point along the mainstem depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation/evapotranspiration, and groundwater flow.HistoryThe confluence of the Kagera and Ruvubu rivers near Rusumo Falls, part of the Nile's upper reaches.The Nile (iteru in Ancient Egyptian) was the lifeline of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the Stone Age. Climate change, or perhaps overgrazing, desiccated the pastoral lands of Egypt to form the Sahara desert, possibly as long ago as 8000 BC, and the inhabitants then presumably migrated to the river, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and a more centralized society.The river Nile froze twice in recorded history, in 829[10][11] and 1010.[12]The EonileThe present Nile is at least the fifth river that has flowed north from the Ethiopian Highlands. Satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. An Eonile canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents an ancestral Nile called the Eonile that flowed during the later Miocene (23-5.3 million years before the present). The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean, where several gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.During the late-Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred feet below world ocean level at Aswan and 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below Cairo. This huge canyon is now full of later sediment.Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. That would have made the Nile much longer, with its longest headwaters in northern Zambia.The integrated NileThere are two theories in relation to the age of the integrated Nile. The first one is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age, that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly (the Proto Nile basin) feeding a river following the present course of the Nile in Egypt and in the far north of the Sudan.[13] Said (1981) stresses the fact that Egypt itself supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile and the Atbara/Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times.[14]Salama (1987) suggested that during the Tertiary there were a series of separate closed continental basins, each basin occupying one of the major Sudanese Rift System: Mellut Rift, White Nile Rift, Blue Nile Rift, Atbara Rift and Sag El Naam Rift.[15] The Mellut Rift Basin is nearly 12 km deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamps which forms the central part of the Basin is possibly still subsiding. The White Nile Rift System, although shallower than Bahr El Arab, is about 9 km deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5-9 km. These basins were not interconnected except after their subsidence ceased and the rate of sediment deposition was enough to fill up the basins to such a level that would allow connection to take place. The filling up of the depressions led to the connection of the Egyptian Nile with the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial head waters during the latest stages of tectonic activities of Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift Systems.[16] The connection of the different Niles occurred during the cyclic wet periods. The River Atbara overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods which occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years B.P. The Blue Nile was connected to the main Nile during the 70,000-80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile some 12,500 years B.P.Role in the founding of Egyptian civilizationReconstruction of the Oikoumene (inhabited world) ancient map based on Herodotus' description of the world, circa 450 BCE.Sustenance played a crucial role in the founding of Egyptian civilization. The Nile is an unending source of sustenance. The Nile made the land surrounding it extremely fertile when it flooded or was inundated annually. The Egyptians were able to cultivate wheat and crops around the Nile, providing food for the general population. Also, the Nile's water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels. These animals could be killed for meat, or could be captured, tamed and used for ploughing - or in the camels' case, travelling. Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a convenient and efficient way of transportation for people and goods.Dhows on the NileThe structure of Egypt's society made it one of the most stable in history. In fact, it might easily have surpassed many modern societies. This stability was an immediate result of the Nile's fertility. The Nile also provided flax for trade. Wheat was also traded, a crucial crop in the Middle East where famine was very common. This trading system secured the diplomatic relationship Egypt had with other countries, and often contributed to Egypt's economic stability. Also, the Nile provided the resources such as food or money, to quickly and efficiently raise an army for offensive or defensive roles.The Nile played a major role in politics and social life. The pharaoh would supposedly flood the Nile, and in return for the life-giving water and crops, the peasants would cultivate the fertile soil and send a portion of the resources they had reaped to the Pharaoh. He or she would in turn use it for the well-being of Egyptian society.The Nile was a source of spiritual dimension. The Nile was so significant to the lifestyle of the Egyptians, that they created a god dedicated to the welfare of the Nile's annual inundation. The god's name was Hapi, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding of the Nile River. Also, the Nile was considered as a causeway from life to death and afterlife. The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god Ra, the sun, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each time he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were located west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they must be buried on the side that symbolized death.The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that 'Egypt was the gift of the Nile', and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years.That far-reaching trade has been carried on along the Nile since ancient times can be seen from the Ishango bone, possibly the earliest known indication of Ancient Egyptian multiplication, which was discovered along the headwaters of the Nile River (near Lake Edward, in northeastern Congo) and was carbon-dated to 20,000 BC.The search for the source of the NileThe Great Bend of the Nile in Sudan, looking north across the Sahara Desert towards Northern Sudan.Despite the attempts of the Greeks and Romans (who were unable to penetrate the Sudd), the upper reaches of the Nile remained largely unknown. Various expeditions had failed to determine the river's source, thus yielding classical Hellenistic and Roman representations of the river as a male god with his face and head obscured in drapery. Agatharcides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian highlands, but no European in Antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana, let alone retraced the steps of this expedition farther than Meroe.Europeans learned little new information about the origins of the Nile until the 15th and 16th centuries, when travelers to Ethiopia visited not only Lake Tana, but the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Although James Bruce claimed to have been the first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers with better knowledge give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez. Páez' account of the source of the Nile (History of Ethiopia c. 1622) was not published in full until the early 20th century. The work is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. The account is however featured in several contemporary works, including Balthazar Telles (Historia geral da Ethiopia a Alta, 1660), Athanasius Kircher (Mundus Subterraneus, 1664) and by Johann Michael Vansleb (The Present State of Egypt, 1678). Europeans had been resident in the country since the late 15th century, and it is entirely possible one of them had visited the headwaters even earlier but was unable to send a report of his discoveries out of Ethiopia. Jerónimo Lobo also describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. His account is likewise utilized by Balthazar Telles.The White Nile was even less understood, and the ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile; for example, Pliny the Elder wrote that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyles, then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for a distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." [17] A merchant named Diogenes reported the Nile's water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels.Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore whilst on his journey with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. The well known British explorer and missionary David Livingstone failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately the Welsh explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the Lake's northern shore. It was on this journey that Stanley was said to have greeted the British explorer with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" upon discovering the Scotsman ill and despondent in his camp on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.Modern achievementsThe Nile passes through Cairo, Egypt's capital cityThe White Nile Expedition, led by South African national Hendri Coetzee, became the first to navigate the Nile's entire length. The expedition took off from the source of the Nile in Uganda on January 17, 2004 and arrived safely at the Mediterranean in Rosetta, 4 months and 2 weeks later. National Geographic released a feature film about the expedition towards in late 2005 entitled The Longest River.On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film "Mystery of the Nile", and in a book of the same title. The team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005 when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power.A team led by South Africans Peter Meredith and Hendri Coetzee on 30 April 2005, became the first to navigate the most remote headstream, the remote source of the Nile, the Akagera river, which starts as the Rukarara in Nyungwe forest in Rwanda.On March 31, 2006, three explorers from Britain and New Zealand lead by Neil McGrigor claimed to have been the first to travel the river from its mouth to a new "true source" deep in Rwanda's Nyungwe rainforest. 2°16′55.92″S, 29°19′52.32″E.[18]CrossingsThis is a list of crossings from Khartoum to the Mediterranean:Aswan Bridge, AswanLuxor Bridge, Luxor1st Ring Road Bridge (Moneeb Crossing), CairoAbbas Bridge, CairoUniversity Bridge, CairoQasr El Nile Bridge, Cairo6th of October Bridge, CairoAbu El Ela Bridge, Cairo2nd Ring Road Bridge, CairoThis list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.GalleryView of the Nile from a cruiseboat, between Luxor and Aswan in EgyptA dhow traversing the Nile near AswanMarsh along the NileThe Nile in UgandaA river boat crossing the Nile in UgandaMediaScenery of the NileRiver and mountain scenery on the Nile, from hereLife on the banks of the NilePeople living on the banks of the Nile, from here

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