River Nile is the world’s longest river and it flows in Africa. This river has its importance particularly for its connection to the important events in the past and also its name can be found in some religious scriptures too. But today, river Nile is important because of it makes the land fertile and has spread greenery in the adjacent lands. This land has been used for cultivation and farming for thousands of years. Nile is 6,670 km long and though it is associated with Egypt the most, only 22 percent of this river flows there. Other facts are given in below lines.
1. Origin of Nile
River Nile flows In Africa, this we all know, it originates from Burundi and flows towards the northeast of Africa. Its ends when finally it drains into the Mediterranean Sea.
2. Source of Nile River
Every river has a source from where it gets its water. The source of river Nile is believed to be the Lake Victoria in Africa. There is a waterfall called Ripon falls from where water of the lake flows into a narrow opening, this is believed to be the starting point of Nile.
3. True source of water in Nile
Though many believe that the source of Nile is tracked back to Lake Victoria, but the true source goes to somewhere else. In Lake Victoria, the water is poured from many streams; the main source of water in lake is the Kagera River. This river and its tributary the ruvubu are the actual source of Nile.
4. Main rivers of Nile
River Nile is not simply a water source that starts at one point and ends at another, the two rivers that flow into the Nile are White Nile and Blue Nile. White Nile originates from Lake Victoria while Blue Nile originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. These rivers meet in Sudan.
5. Contribution
The contribution of white and blue Nile to the water of the combined river is: White Nile contributes up to 15 percent of the total water of Nile even though it is bigger than Blue Nile but Blue Nile contributes up to 85 percent of water.
6. The home since centuries
Nile’s adjacent lands are home to the many Africans since thousands of years. It has been providing food and transportation to the people since long.
7. The fertile lands
The fertile lands of Nile are due to the flood in Nile. Since most of the part of Egypt was poor in receiving Nile and Ethiopia received heavy rains, the flood left the black silt which gathered there and became a blessing for the Nile land.
8. Area next to Nile
The area next to Nile was called black land because of its fertility and food production. The area next to the black land was called red land because it was unforgiving desert.
9. Flooding
Nile used to flood every year in months of June to September because of the heavy rains, but it does not flood now due to the construction of Aswan dam in 1968 which controls the flood water.
10. The hapi god
Hapi used to be considered as the god of Nile and people used to make him happy through sacrifices and as thankfulness when it used to flood.