Saint Saint Nile

The Nile River is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa which empties into the Mediterranean Sea. At 7,088 km long, it is the longest river in the world, although the volume of water it carries is much smaller than other major rivers such as the Amazon or Congo. The Nile has played a central role in the environmental, economic, and cultural history of Africa for millennia. The river's drainage basin covers portions of eleven countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Nile has two major tributaries: the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is longer and is considered to be the headwaters, although the Blue Nile contributes over two thirds of the water and silt below the confluence of the two. The White Nile begins at Lake Victoria and flows through Uganda and South Sudan; and the Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet at the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. From there, the river flows north, through the Nubian Desert to Egypt's capital city, Cairo, finally emptying into the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria, where it has formed a large delta. The Nile was the foundation of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, which relied on the river for nearly every aspect of life. The annual flooding of the river deposited silt along the riverbanks, which supported crops that enabled a prosperous society to thrive in an otherwise inhospitable desert. The Nile facilitated trade, communication, transportation, and governance. In the Ancient Egyptian religion, the river was personified by Egyptian gods Hapy and Khnum. The source of the Nile river was not definitively identified until the late 19th century, when Europeans explored the region around Lake Victoria. Since the late 20th century, numerous dams have been built on the Nile and its tributaries to provide for irrigation and to generate electricity.