Nile

Nile, The River, the most important river of Africa, its course extending, from south to north, over more than half the entire length of the continent. Its source was for centuries unknown, and it is only lately that it has been ascertained that the main, or western branch, called the White Nile or Bahr el Abiad, flows from the large lake Victoria Nyanza, long. 33° E., lat. 30' N., the lake itself extending more than 200 miles south of the equator. The river flows by a sinuous course northwest, until it receives the waters of the lake Albert Nyanza, lat. 2° N. It then flows northward to Khartoum, receiving about half-way two large affluents - the Bahr el Ghazal, from the west, and the Sobat, from the east. At Khartoum it is joined by the western branch, the Blue Nile or Bahr el Azrak, which rises in Lake Dembea in the Abyssinian mountains. From Khartoum it, flows north-east to the junction of the river Atbara, its most northern tributary. Then, with two great bends and many small ones, it flows in a succession of rapids and cataracts past Berber, Dongola, Wadi Haifa, and Korosko to Assuan, and then pursues a northerly direction to the great delta through which it discharges itself into the Mediterranean, the chief channels issuing at Rosetta and Damietta. The entire length of the main stream of the Nile must exceed 3,000 miles. From Berber the Nile flows through a valley which is almost rainless, but much of which is fertilised by the yearly inundations of the river.