Nile Egypt

RIVER NILE

River of Life River Nile

The Ancient Egyptians called the river Ar or Aur which meant black because of the colour the sediment left on the landscape after the rivers annual flood. The name Nile, from neilos meaning river valley, was coined much later by the Greeks.

The Nile measures 6,670km in length and is the longest river in the world. About 105 million people live along its river banks, most of these in Egypt. In fact, about 95% of Egypt's present day population lives within 15km of the river.

Most people associate the Nile with Egypt, but only 22% of the rivers course actually goes through that country. The Nile also runs through Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi. The Niles significance to the whole of Africa cannot be overestimated since it drains about 10% of the continents land area. Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda all have tributaries which flow into the Nile or into Lake Victoria.

The Nile in Egypt is made up of water from two principal sources: the Blue Nile provides 60% of the waters that reach Egypt and the White Nile provides 14%. The balance is provided by two tributaries, the Sobat and the Atbara. The Blue Nile and the

White Nile meet at the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum.

River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British

Councils Connecting Classrooms with support from HSBC Global Education Programme

www.nilevalleytravel.com

RIVER NILE

River of Life White Nile

Up until the twentieth century, the source of the White Nile (named from the whitish clay suspended in its waters) was in hot dispute. For years it was thought to be Lake Victoria (Africas biggest lake) on the border of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. But the lake itself has feeder rivers and one of these, the Kangara and its tributary the Ruvubu, with its headwaters in Burundi, is now considered to be the true source of the Nile. When the Albert Nile, as the river is known here, leaves Lake Victoria, near the

town of Jinja on the northern edge of the lake, it proceeds via the Owen Falls

Dam and the Bujagali Falls to Lake Kyoga. From there, it heads for the northern tip of Lake Albert and just before it reaches it, the water tumbles 122m

over the spectacular Murchison Falls.

After Lake Albert, the river (called locally Al Jabal mountain river) passes through gorges and rapids and then enters a giant swamp called the Sudd (from the Arabic obstacle) in southern Sudan. The Sudd is one of the biggest wetlands in the world and it slows the river (called Al Zeraf river of the giraffes) to such an extent that half of its waters are lost to evaporation here.

The Sudd is around 600km long and covers up to 32,000 square kilometres. There is not a tree in sight, papyrus towers four metres above the water. The area has remained largely unchanged and unexplored for thousands of years and is still populated by indigenous Dinka and Nuer peoples.

The marshes and flood plains of the

Sudd support some of the greatest concentrations of large mammals on earth. The rivers, lakes and marshes

teem with fish. But it is most notorious for its vicious mosquitos. Over 63

species have been identified so far. Today, a struggle for control of the Sudds 3 billion barrels of crude oil and its significant resources of water and fertile soil have fuelled one of the worlds longest civil wars. In the last 20 years alone, hundreds of thousands of people

have been killed or displaced. After the Sudd, the White Nile is joined by the Ghazal and the Sobat rivers, which replace most of the water lost in the swamp and the White Nile, as the

river is known from this point, broadens into a slow-moving channel. Five hundred kilometres later, the White Nile is joined by the Blue Nile at the twin cities of Khartoum and Omdurman and from this point the river is called simply

the Nile. River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British



RIVER NILE

River of Life Blue Nile

The White Nile and the Blue Nile have very different characteristics. The White Nile has a constant flow which is

regulated by the Sudd whereas the Blue Nile is faster flowing and has a flood season between July and October, caused by

heavy rainfall in the Ethiopian Highlands.

The Blue Nile, which is just 1,610km long, rises in the springs

around Mount Gishe by Lake Tama in the Ethiopian Highlands. Although some 60 rivers flow into the lake, only the Abay Wenz flows out. Just a few kilometres downstream, the river plunges forty-five metres. This waterfall, called Tis Isat (Smoking Fire), is the second largest waterfall in Africa and it converts the Blue Nile into a raging torrent.

After joining the White Nile at Khartoum the river is joined by only one tributary, the Atbara, before it reaches the

Mediterranean. The river then executes a huge curve (visible left) before entering Egypt. Its northern journey is

interrupted by six sets of rapids called cataracts.

After Lake Nasser and the Aswan High Dam, the river enters the Nile Valley a strip of fertile land some 12km wide on either side of the river. Beyond this floodplain are the barren deserts of the Sahara. Just north of Cairo, the river splits into several branches, the two main ones being the Damietta and the Rosetta, to form the Nile Delta some of the most productive agricultural land in the world.




RIVER NILE

River of Life Mammals

Acting like a giant oasis set in the middle of the desert, the Nile concentrates wildlife. Fish are plentiful, including Nile perch, catfish and tilapia. The tilapia is also known as the Egyptian Mouth Breeder. When they are born, parents incubate the tiny fry by holding them in their mouths. The parents take turns, alternately holding the fry and then passing them to their partner so that they can swim off and feed themselves.

The Nile is a staging post on the migratory corridor between Europe and Africa, and so every year the Egyptians witness the arrival and departure of flocks of birds in their thousands. There are over 300 species of bird to be found along the Nile in Egypt. The ibis was considered a sacred bird by the ancient Egyptians. On temple walls, the Egyptian god Thoth, god of wisdom and writing, is depicted with the head of an ibis.

In Ancient Egyptian times, elephants, rhinos, hippos, lions, hyenas and giraffes roamed the valley although these were gradually hunted and pushed out as civilisation grew. However, Nile crocodiles still survive. The Nile crocodile is one of the largest of all the worlds crocodiles. At nearly six metres in length and weighing in at 700kg it is a fearsome predator. The word crocodile means lizard of the Nile and the Ancient Egyptians considered them to be so sacred that sanctuaries were built to honour them and when they died they were mummified. At a temple complex called

Crocodilopolis, the sacred beasts were fed with roast meats. By the

twentieth century, of the great creatures, only crocodiles remained in

Egyptian waters and now sadly they are gone too. The construction of

the Aswan Dam in the 1960s pushed the crocodile south into Sudan.

The Ancient Egyptian god Sobek is usually depicted as a crocodile or a human male with the head of a crocodile. Sobek is a protector of

men against wild beasts and hostile forces that live in the marshes and waters of the Nile. Ancient Egyptians kept crocodiles in pools and

temples and ornamented them with jewels in honour of Sobek. River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British



RIVER NILE

Polluted River Nile in Egypt

Nile pollution in Egypt became a problem after

1970 and the completion of the Aswan High

Dam. Before then, river pollutants were

washed away with the annual flood. The dam

has however tamed the surging floodwaters

that would annually flush pollutants out of the

Nile system and into the Mediterranean. - Farmers have been forced to use about a

million tons of artificial fertilizer as a substitute for the nutrients which no longer fill the flood plain. There has been a four-fold increase in the use of chemical fertilizers since the dam and much of this pollutes the Nile as run-off.

- Poor drainage and over-irrigation has led to increased salinity. Over half of Egypt's farmland is now rated as medium to poor soil.

- Parasitic illnesses have increased, notably

bilharzia associated with the stagnant water of the fields and the reservoir.

Key sources of pollution in the Nile include: - Agricultural run-off from irrigation

chemical fertilizers are seeping back into the river and, because more water evaporates in irrigation systems, it has higher saline levels.

- Sewage from cities, towns and villages is dumped into it in untreated or partially treated form.

- Industrial waste from factories situated along the river.

- Domestic rubbish. - Fisheries.

Though Egypt is dependent on the Nile for 98% of its water needs, the nation has fouled the river with untreated municipal and industrial wastes and agricultural chemicals. From the Aswan High Dam north to the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile's waters are

used again and again by each village and town and by every farmer's field.

Before it even gets to Cairo, the river is laden with pollution and carrying so

much salt leached from croplands that the water must be desalinated before it

can be used for agricultural and municipal purposes further downstream. Cairo suffers from water pollution as the sewer system tends to fail and overflow. On occasion, sewage has escaped onto the streets to create a health hazard. This problem is hoped to be solved by a new sewer system funded by

the European Union, which could cope with the demands of the city. The dangerously high levels of mercury in the city's water system has alarmed global health officials who are concerned over related health risks.




RIVER NILE

Resourceful River Annual Flood

The Ancient Egyptians relied on the natural fact that at the hottest, driest time of the year, in what would otherwise have been desert, the Nile broke its banks with an ocean of water, rich with silt. All a farmer had to do was to wait for the waters to subside and then he would plant his crop in the black sludge and sit back and wait. The Egyptians, wrote Herodotus, gather in the fruits of the earth with less labour than any other people. Although current opinion is that the Egyptian farmers were put to work on pyramid building when they werent occupied on their fields.

The Nile's waters increase in the summer due to heavy rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands. In April, flooding begins in southern Sudan. It is July before the floods reach Egypt. A rise of about 7.5m is expected as the river rises. The Ancient Egyptians placed stone measuring devices (nilometres) along the banks at the southern end of the

country to record the height of the water. A nilometre usually consisted of a series of steps against which the increasing height of the Inundation, as well as

the general level of the river, could be measured. Too high a

flood from their river, and villages would be destroyed; too low

a flood, and the land would turn to dust and bring famine.

Indeed, one flood in five was either too low or too high.

Flooding occurred throughout the Nile Valley and the Nile Delta region. After the river peaked, the levels fall quickly. In November, the water begins to recede revealing a land blackened with sediment that is a rich, natural fertilizer. This was the season for planting and growing. The waters continued to recede, reaching their lowest point in March at harvest time. This annually recurring flooding is now controlled by means of the Aswan Dam, which was completed in 1970.

One of the main reasons for the rise of Egyptian civilisation was the

development of ways to control the rivers flood waters. They appreciated that extra crops could be wrung out of the silt by efficient irrigation

and the entire nation was involved in building elaborate systems of embankments, dykes, barriers, canals and basins to manage the flow of water. The two most commonly used mechanisms for raising water have been in use since Ancient Egyptian times: the chaduf, a see-saw instrument that lifts buckets of water and the noria, a large water wheel. So productive was the land that after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, the country became known as the bread basket of the empire.

Recently, global warming has changed the pattern and quantity of rainfall in the Ethiopian Highlands. This has affected the flow of the Blue Nile and Atbara rivers. In 1998, Khartoum suffered its worst flooding in fifty years. Yet a few years earlier, it was suffering from severe droughts. If sea levels rise at the rate currently predicted of 1m by 2100, then 30% of the Nile Delta will be submerged.




RIVER NILE

Resourceful River Aswan High Dam Construction work on the Aswan High Dam (a huge rock-fill dam known as Saad el Aali in Arabic) was started downriver from an earlier dam in 1959 and was completed in 1970. It was constructed to allow for navigation through its four locks. The dam was built to supply power, to provide water for irrigation, and to protect the crops and the people living in the areas downstream from heavy flooding. The scale of the dam is impressive: it is 140 feet thick at the summit and 3,430 feet thick at the base. It is 12,600 feet long and 388 feet high. By its sheer weight (the material in the dam is equivalent to seventeen of the great pyramids at Giza) it can resist the power of the water of Lake Nasser, which is over 350km long, between 7km and 20km wide and up to 100m deep. Benefits of the Dam - It controls the annual floods on the Nile River and prevents the damage

which used to occur along the floodplain. - The regular water supply means that farmers can now grow three crops in a

year. - Farmland in Egypt has increased by 25% mainly in the Nile Delta. - It provides a significant amount of Egypt's power supply. - It has improved navigation along the river by keeping the water flow constant. Problems associated with the Dam - The construction of the dam led to the total disappearance of the region

immediately upriver called Lower Nubia. Over 90,000 people were forced to abandon their homes and native villages for unknown lands. Those who had been living on the Egyptian side were moved only 45km away but the Sudanese Nubians were relocated more than 600km from their original homes.

- A campaign was launched by UNESCO in 1960 to save the archaeological remains of the area before they were flooded. As a result, the Temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel was carried 224 feet from its original site to higher ground to prevent its disappearance in the rising water levels. It took 900 people almost five years to complete this move.

- The sediments carried down the Nile have been filling the reservoir and thus decreasing its storage capacity. This accumulation of silt creates mini-dams when it dries in the low water season and behind this mini-dam the same process repeats upstream. Some fear that in a year of high flood (as happened in the Mississippi), the flood water will gather and create surges of ever greater intensity as the water breaks each mini-dam. It is thought that by the time it reaches the Aswan Dan, the water will have enough force to sweep the structure aside and flood Egypt.

- Erosion has increased along the river banks at an alarming rate. Marine erosion has increased too, since the Nile no longer has the power to push back the Mediterranean. Some say the delta will disappear by 2030.

- Fish stocks in the Nile are down. Pre-dam, the annual sardine catch was 18,000 tonnes a year. Now 500 tonnes is a good annual haul.

- And, to cap it all, the surplus of hydro-electrical power has not materialised to

the extent originally estimated.




RIVER NILE

Resourceful River Water Politics More than 85% of the Nile's water originates in Ethiopia yet the vast majority of the Nile's flow is used by Egypt, the last nation on the Nile's path to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile provides almost all the fresh water used by more than 60 million Egyptians living along its banks. In the past, Egypt saw no

reason to worry about its dependence on the Nile's waters. However, upstream nations are starting to harness the Nile to provide economic prosperity for their own growing numbers and that is causing Egypt some concern. - Egypts Al Salam Canal and pipeline is a 180km project taking water

from the Damietta branch of the Nile in the Delta to irrigate the deserts of northern Sinai. When complete, it will increase Egypts irrigated farmland by 20% and allow the resettlement of 1.5 million people from the over-crowded Nile Valley.

- Egypts Mubarak Pumping Station (opened in 2005) is the centrepiece of the ambitious Toshka Project. Seen as a solution to the over-population of the Nile Valley, the project aims to increase Egypts inhabitable land area from 5% to 25% by 2017, and resettle 7 million people in the new territory. Mubarak will be the largest pumping station in the world, pumping water from Lake Nasser to irrigate the Toshka area in southern Egypt. Sceptics question the wisdom of developing a water-hungry agriculture in the hottest part of the country.

- Sudans Jonglei Canal was planned to bypass the Sudd. Digging began in 1978 but was halted in 1984 because of Sudans civil war. 267km of the 360km canal was built. If the canal is ever completed, the negative impact on the environment will be enormous.

- In 1925, an enormous irrigation scheme was built in Sudan in the area of land called Al-Jazirah, between the White and the Blue Nile. Al-Jazirah provides 25% of Sudans cotton crop.

- Uganda plans to build a dam at Bujagali Falls and this will destroy one of the countrys most beautiful natural reserves and will do nothing to help 95% of Ugandas population who are not connected to the countrys national grid.

- Ethiopia has recently emerged from a long period of civil war and famine into a period of accelerated growth and economic development. The government envisages the construction of more than 200 small dams as part of a project to irrigate an area of land larger than Belgium. Irrigating only half this land area with water from the Nile could reduce the river's flow to Egypt by 15%.

- Ethiopias plans to build a dam at Lake Tans escalated into a serious international incident. The dam would have prevented 40% of the Blue

Nile waters from flowing downstream with severe knock-on effects to the

economies of Sudan and Egypt. When Egypt threatened war the Ethiopians backed down.

It is expected that the population of the Nile basin, which was about 160 million in 1990, will grow to 300 million by 2010 and 550 million by 2030. Reliable access to water remains key to increasing agricultural productivity, providing employment, and raising the standards of living of the people who live in the ten countries along the Nile. On the other hand, the Nile also represents a vast resource for hydropower generation. Competing projects combined with the impacts of climate change could send the regions over-tapped water resources into crisis. In a historic effort, on 22 February 1999, the ten countries of the Nile basin adopted a shared vision for sustainable development the Nile Basin Initiative. River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British

Councils Connecting Classrooms with support from HSBC G lobal Education Programme


RIVER NILE

Working Nile River Boats

Ancient Egyptian civilization did not use wheeled vehicles for travel or transportation the Nile was their highway and during the floods, boats could reach almost anywhere on the floodplain. The Nile flowed from south to north at an average speed of about four knots during the inundation season. The water level was 25 to 33 feet deep and navigation was fast. A river voyage from Thebes (modern Luxor) north to Memphis (near modern Cairo) lasted approximately two weeks. During the drier season when the water level was lower, and speed slower, the same trip (680km) would last two months. Travelling upstream was slower, but boats could generally rely on the prevailing northerly winds.

The felucca (an Italian term applied loosely to any kind of pleasure boat) was the most common boat on the Nile. The feluccas seen today were invented in 3350 BC. The light-hulled boats are generally long and very narrow and were usually sailed, although they can also be rowed when the wind is not favorable. These days, feluccas are most commonly used in the tourist trade.

Solar Boats were high status, regal vessels built in the image of the boat that took the Sun God Ra across the heavens. Historians knew of these vessels only via hieroglyphic references until 1954 when archaeologists discovered the components of a Solar Boat in a regal tomb. The reconstructed boat is now housed in its own museum near the Great Pyramid at Giza. It is 44m long and 5.9m wide. The hull is made of boards stitched together with twisted hemp and leather thongs that shrank in contact with water. There was provision for just six pairs of oars and as this would not have provided much propulsion, these oars might have been used for steering and the boat either towed or pulled along by ropes. Early sails resembled venetian blinds made of papyrus, but more suitable materials were soon found and sails became works of art painted in rich colours and embroidered with the emblem of the kings soul. Nowadays Dahabiya Nile cruises is the most effective boats working in the Nile river of Egypt.




RIVER NILE

Working River Nile Cruise

The concept of travelling for pleasure starts with the Roman Empire. The great tourist attraction of the ancient world was the Nile Valley. It offered exotic landscapes, monuments, luxuries and, above all, excellent communications. Tourists travelled by boat from Ostia to Alexandria and from there by boat down the Nile.

To impress Caesar, Cleopatra took him on a two-month Nile cruise. With an escort of 400 ships, they cruised in a double-decker floating palace, 90m long and 14m wide. They were propelled by banks of oarsmen and by a 30m linen sail fringed in purple. Meals and entertainment were provided for up to sixty guests, who stretched out on couches in a saloon

panelled in cypress and cedar. Guests stayed in

private cabins. The lower deck contained a mock

cave made out of slabs of stone lined with gold.

Travel books and the excitement caused by the Burton

& Speke expedition (1859), and then Livingstone &

Stanleys (1870s), to discover the source of the White Nile generated huge interest among the European

upper classes in all things Egyptian.

Early Nile Cruises were taken on six- or eight-cabined Arab sailing vessels called dahabiyas. Thanks to popular published accounts like Amelia Edwards A Thousand Miles up the Nile and Agatha Christies Death on the Nile, Nile cruising became more and

more popular from the mid-nineteenth century and there were hundreds of dahabiyyas plying for trade along the Cairo waterfront. Sensing an opportunity, the budding package holiday provider Thomas Cook commissioned steamers (the first in 1870) for the ever-expanding Nile Cruise market.

The present type of cruise ship with fifty to eighty cabins like floating hotels was introduced in 1959. In 1975, there were still only a couple of these large boats on the Nile. By 1991, the number had increased to over twenty. Today the river is

congested with over 300 boats, most of them offering three- to five-day cruises between Luxor and Aswan.




RIVER NILE

River City Cairo

With a population of 17 million people (12 million people live in the city and 5 million people travel in), Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo marks the head of the Nile Delta and marks the

division between Upper and Lower Egypt. Across the

Nile is Giza technically a different administrative

region, but in fact part of the same urban sprawl.

The city has been settled since neolithic times. Founded in the fourth Millennium BC, Memphis (sited in present day Giza) was the first political capital of Egypt. In the tenth century AD there was a royal enclosure called Al-Qahirah and it was this area which was then mispronounced by Italian merchants as Gran Cairo, a name which caught on throughout Europe.

Cairos iconic bridge, the 382m long Kasr el Nil Bridge, was inaugurated in June 1933, just 14 months after the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Both bridges were constructed by the same UK-based company. Kasr el Nil replaced an earlier crossing. The first bridge was opened to traffic in February 1872. It was unofficially referred to as Kobri el Gezira or Gezira Bridge. Four bronze lions adorn its entrances. The bridge served first and foremost as a catalyst for the development of Gezira Island and the expanse that lay beyond. Within a century of being built, the 4,000 year-old Giza pyramids would no longer be seen from downtown Cairo.

Today, in Cairos city centre, there is very little public access to the Nile waterfront. Busy roads line most of the

riverside edges. The roadways are constructed some 10

to 15m from the river itself leaving an exposed strip of land

between road and river. This riverbank area is generally left unlandscaped and vegetation is allowed to grow unconstrained. There is no public access here, although some of Cairos poor and homeless squat the land. Other parts of this exposed strip have been developed with restaurants and discotheques. These have been constructed with no free

public access to the waterfront. Very few people walk along the pavements beside the river. Perhaps because of the noise and pollution of the roadways, perhaps because these roadways are very difficult to cross! Perhaps also because even on the pavement, pedestrians are cut off from the river itself. Strolling over the Nile bridges is however a very popular pastime. In particular, on a Friday afternoon after work, people bring foldaway chairs and picnics and sit looking out at the Nile through the sunset and often well into the night. A rare exception on the Nile waterfront which integrates access to the waterfront is located between Kasr El Nil Bridge and 6 October Bridge in the north. This project has strengthened the embankment, designing stepped terraces, parks and public spaces by the river. The southern portion of the site is a 200m long park called the Al-Riyadi Garden, meaning the initial. The garden is a successful model for allowing the public to access the riverfront.




RIVER NILE

River Culture Ancient Egyptians

Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile had its source in underground seas that erupted from the depths in the south at Aswan. The boundaries of their land were clearly defined. In the north, there was the Mediterranean; to east and west desert, and to the south, a set of six unnavigable rapids the cataracts. Within these boundaries the Egyptians had all they needed; outside existed a world of chaos and inferior beings. Furthermore, they believed that their temples were models of a perfect universe: the floors represented the river; the stone columns, papyrus reeds; and the ceilings, decorated with stars, the sky above.

The Nile and its annual flood were basic to the Egyptian world-view. Unlike most peoples, the Egyptians oriented towards the south, from which the river came, so that the west was on their right with the result that it was the 'good' side for passage into the next world. The year and calendar were adjusted to the Nile and the stars. New Year was in mid-July, when the river began to rise for the inundation; this coincided approximately with the reappearance of the star Sirius (Egyptian Sothis) in the sky after 70 days' invisibility. Sothis provided the astronomical anchor for a 365 day calendar. The river defined three seasons of four months: 'Inundation' when the land flooded; 'Emergence' when the land reappeared and could be cultivated; and 'Heat' or Harvest, when crops were gathered and the water was lowest.

Osiris was the god most closely associated with the Nile. His face is painted green to symbolise the renewal of life caused by the annual flooding. The Ancient Egyptians believed that after death, the pharoahs spirit left its body and wandered through the underworld in search of Osiris. Hapy was the god

associated with the flooding of the river and an annual festival was held in his

honour to bring on the Inundation. He is depicted as an image of abundance,

a fat figure bringing water and produce to the gods. There are 87 pyramids along a 100km (60 mile) stretch of the Nile. The efforts that

went into the Great Pyramid were immense. The granite blocks required to build

the pyramid some weighing 70 tonnes each were brought 500 miles down the

river from Aswan on reed barges. The site for a pyramid was set far enough back

from the Nile so as not to be affected by the annual flood. The blocks were drawn

along a specially constructed causeway from the Nile to the pyramid site.

Herodotus describes shifts of 100,000 men taking ten years just to build this

enormous causeway, 18m wide from the Nile to the plateau.




Bruce entering Gondar and prostrate

(in Arab costume) in front of the

Emperor of Abyssinia from Bruces Travels to Discover the Source of the

Nile

RIVER NILE

River Culture Blue Nile Explorers

The Greek traveler Herodutus (c490 BC to 424 BC) was the Niles first recorded explorer. Four hundred years later, the Emperor Nero sent a small

group of soldiers south to discover the source of the Nile but their journey was

blocked by the Sudd. The soldiers reported, so thick and tangled are the plants in the waters that it is impossible to proceed either on foot or by boat. Ptolomy, writing in the second century, revealed remarkable clairvoyance

when he described the river emerging from snow capped mountains. Perhaps

he had taken the trouble to listen to Arab traders who must have used the Nile

as a trading route for generations.

By the tenth century Arab travelers like Al

Masudi had reasonably precise information

regarding the source of the Blue Nile, the

Mountains of the Moon.

The first Europeans to describe the source of

the Blue Nile were Pedro Paez and Jerome

Lobo, both Portuguese Jesuit priests. They

had entered Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) from

the Indian Ocean in 1611 and reached the

source at Lake Tana in April 1618. But this

event was not widely reported and the

discovery of the Blue Nile was claimed in the

late eighteenth century by James Bruce, a

Scottish explorer. Although we have to

assume that the slave traders, who had been

treading paths for hundreds of years between

the great slave markets of Cairo, Khartoum

and Zanzibar already knew the landscape

well.

James Bruce arrived in Egypt in 1768 with a passion to discover the source of the Blue Nile, despite the fact that he had read Paez and Lobos account of their journey. Bruce was well prepared. He had taken the trouble to learn both Arabic and the Abyssinian language. He was canny too. When he arrived, via the Red Sea, at the capital city of Gondar, he gained the favour of the Abyssinian court by using rudimentary medical skills to heal the queen mothers children and grandchildren of smallpox. He reached Mount Gishe on 4 November 1770 and had returned to London in 1774. But his descriptions of his adventures were considered to be far too incredible to be true and his assertions were rejected by the academic community. Bruce died in 1794, four years after

publishing his Travels to discover the source of the Nile, without the glory he

so craved. River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British



Burton and Speke at the Ugandan

court from Spekes Journal of the

Discovery of the Source of the Nile

RIVER NILE

River Culture Burton & Speke

The source of the White Nile has been the subject of controversy and debate

for thousands of years. Only the race to the moon in modern times has

mirrored the kind of excitement which was generated by the search for the

source of the Nile.

The Royal Geographical Society launched an expedition to discover the source led by Richard Burton (an intellectual giant with an amazing ability to learn languages) and accompanied by John Hanning Speke. The pair arrived in Zanzibar in 1856. After eight months of travel inland they were the first Europeans to set eyes on Lake Tanganyika. But the difficult journey inland had taken its toll. Speke was temporarily blind with an eye infection and Burton was virtually paralysed with an abscess on his tongue. Speke recovered and, leaving Burton ill on the shores of the lake, he travelled inland and discovered Lake Victoria. Speke was awe-inspired with its scale, it is the second largest lake in the world measuring 260km long by 180km wide. Like all the other waterfalls and lakes he and other European explorers discovered, they already had African names. When he returned to Lake Tanganyika, Speke claimed he had found the source of the White Nile. Burton was disgusted with him and the two became sworn enemies.

On their return to London in 1859 Speke was declared a hero. But the question of what waters fed Lake Victoria remained. Speke convinced the Royal Geographical Society to give him the opportunity to return to explore the lake and gather proof that the source was here. Speke asked a friend, Captain James Augustus Grant to accompany him; they journeyed inland from 1860. After two years of exploration, Speke discovered a waterfall with a river flowing north from the lake and determined that was the start of the Nile. He named the waterfalls Rippon Falls. They returned in 1863 claiming success but academics said he

had no irrefutable evidence that this was the source of the Nile. While Speke and Grant were making their way home, Samuel and Florence Baker were travelling upstream from Egypt on a self-funded mission to find its

source. Baker had been born into immense fortune. After his first wife died be married Florence, a Hungarian refugee he had bought in a Turkish slave market. Bakers family money gave them total independence. In 1862 they travelled up the Nile to Khartoum. It took them 40 days to navigate the Sudd arriving in Gondokoro in 1863 just 12 days before Speke and Grant marched in from the south. A year after leaving Gondokoro they arrived at a Lake which Baker named Lake Albert. The Bakers returned to London arriving in 1865. They had discovered a new lake, but the source of the Nile was still unresolved. River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British

Councils Connecting Classrooms with support from HSBC G lobal Education Programme


Stanley (left) meeting Livingstone

from The Life and Explorations of Dr

Livingstone the Great Missionary

Traveller

RIVER NILE

River Culture Dr Livingstone

In 1865, the Royal Geographical Society resolved to send Dr David Livingstone to settle, once and for all, the question of the source of the Nile. Livingstone had explored the Zambezi and

discovered the Victoria Falls in 1855. His book

describing his exploits, Missionary Tales, made

him a household name when published in 1857.

After leaving Zanzibar in March 1866, Livingstone

took a year to reach the southern shores of Lake

Tangankyika. The sixty bearers and porters hed left

with were now depleted to just five. He spent four

years exploring the region, following and assisted

by, like many of his predecessors, slavers and old

slave routes. His long, arduous journey had taken

its toll. He was weak, feverish and had lost most of

his teeth.

His absence was so prolonged that rumours of his

death had begun to spread in London and rescue

missions were organised to find out what had

actually happened to him. They were all beaten to

the tape by a plucky young journalist, Henry Morton Stanley, from the New York

Herald, who had been instructed by his editor to find the lost explorer and had been provided with all the necessary resources to do so. On 10 November 1871 he found Livingstone at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika (Dr Livingstone I presume?). In 1872, Stanley reached Zanzibar and the news of his meeting with Livingstone caused a sensation around the world. But Livingstone did not survive the journey home. In 1873, he contracted dysentry and died. His body was dried and returned to London and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Stanley resolved to return to Africa and take up Livingstones baton. Backed by his newspaper, the New York Herald, and by the Daily Telegraph, he set off for Zanzibar in 1874. Africa had never seen the likes of the expedition force he put together: 365 men, 8 tons of stores and a steel boat which came apart in sections. It was conducted like a military campaign. The column did not pause for casualties, and any hint of African opposition was put down by force. The boat was lowered into the water as soon as they reached Lake Victoria. After a voyage of 1,600 km (1,000 miles) lasting 57 days, Stanley had the proof he needed that the lake only had one outlet, Rippon Falls. Speke was proved right after all. But it would take yet more expeditions to find and trace the main watercourse

that fed Lake Victoria. The Kangara and its tributary the Ruvubu, with its

headwaters in Burundi, is now considered to be the true source of the White

Nile. River Nile was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2007 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British



Documents

Nile Egypt