A Nile Journey MEDITERRANEAN SEA he time to Delta Damietta River lexandria Srt Said Suez Canal Giza Cai AFRICA The Nile is the longest river in the world From the source of the White Nile in Burundi its water takes six months to reach the sea You will follow its 4 130 mile 6 650 km journey from south to north Valley of The Kings nak SAUDI ARABIA Luxor Aswan EGYPT Abu Simbel Aswan Nasser Cataracts a Bend Khartoum SUDAN Tana The Sudd ETHIOPIA A Vital Waterway For thousands of years the Nile has been a transportation route a source of water for farming and a home for fish plants and wildlife The first people to live on the banks of the Nile were hunters and fishers who settled there 8 000 years ago By 3000 BC the ancient Egyptians were living in the Nile Valley using the river to water their crops Only 1 inch 2 5 cm of rain falls in Egypt each year Without the Nile all of Egypt would be desert SOUTH SUDAN a Juba Murchison UGANDA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO KENYA Lake Edward The Great Lakes Regio RWANDA HA Kagera Ruvubu BURUNDI TANZANIA
Which Nile The Nile is really many rivers Most of its water comes from the Blue Nile This river starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast This traditional Nile sailing boat is called a felucca The White Nile is longer than the Blue Nile and is named after the whitish clay that clouds its waters It rises in Burundi in the Great Lakes region of central Africa then flows north through Uganda and South Sudan Where is the source The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum The river north of Khartoum is sometimes known as the United Nile Since the third century BC people have tried to find out where the Nile begins In 1613 the Spanish explorer Pedro Paez discovered Lake Tana in Ethiopia the source of the Blue Nile In 1857 the British explorer John Speke traced the White Nile as far south as Lake Victoria Today the Nile is measured from the Kagera River and its tributary the Ruvubu in Burundi All along the river farmers depend on Nile water to grow crops and irrigate their
Lake Victoria UGANDA Dam Lake Victoria Your journey begins at Lake Victoria where the White Nile flows north through Uganda It's early in the morning but already the air is hot and steamy as you load up your boat A TANZANIA You ARE HERE V Fishermen prepare to leave the shore of Lake Victoria in the early morning to fish for Nile perch Africa's largest Lake Along the shore small fishing boats are getting ready for the day Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake and fishing is a vital industry for the millions who live around it The Nile perch is Africa s biggest freshwater fish growing up to 6 feet 1 8 m long and weighing over 175 pounds 80 kg Further downstream the Nile is also home to catfish eel lungfish mudfish and tiger
4G At Owen Falls Dam the waters of the Nile are used to produce hydroelectricity for Uganda Kenya and Tanzania What is hydroelectricity Wildlife Alert Hydroelectric power is energy that is produced by fast flowing water Adam holds back the flow of the river and forces it through a narrow gap The quickened flow turns the blades of a giant wheel called a turbine The turbine drives a generator that produces electricity At Owen Falls Dam the Nile leaves Lake Victoria and winds north through nearly 310 miles 500 km of dense forest before reaching the lakes of the Great Rift Valley There are many dangerous rapids here so parts of your journey have to be made by road As you travel downriver your guide points out crocodiles and hippos basking on the banks Crocodiles can be deadly but more people in Africa are killed by hippos Male hippos defend their terrritory fiercely and mothers can be very protective of their young During the day hippos keep cool in the river shallows At dusk they leave the river to graze by the water s
