The White and Blue Niles form the longest river in the world. One of the most outstanding characteristics of the Nile is that it is a river that begins in the south and ends in the north. The two tributaries of the Nile, the White Nile, and the Blue Nile, meet in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. From there, the Nile journey begins at its mouth in the Mediterranean Sea, east of Alexandria.
Description of Nile River
The Nile River is the longest in the world, stretching 6,853 km in Northeast Africa. The word “Nile” is derived from two words, “Neilos,” a Greek word meaning Valley, and the Latin word “Nile.” The Nile River is the waterway that links the Nile Basin countries covering 11 African countries: “Uganda, Eritrea, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt.” The Nile is the primary source of water in all these countries.
Its water is pumped from two tributaries, the White Nile, the mainstream that begins in the Great Lakes in Central Africa, and the Blue Nile, the primary source of ninety percent of the water and silt flowing into Lake Tana in Ethiopia and the two rivers join north of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. However, Lake Victoria is still considered the essential source of the Nile River.
The Nile in Egypt stretches from the northern limits of Lake Nasser in Aswan to just north of Cairo, where the Nile splits to form the Nile Delta into two branches:
In ancient times, the early Egyptians settled along the banks of the Nile River, where they built simple houses and huts for accommodation, grew many crops and domesticated some animals. From then on, they began the first steps toward Egyptian glory. Cultivation was the starting point when the Nile River overflowed its banks, carrying silt deposits that covered neighboring lands along the Nile Valley and made them fertile.
Wheat was the first crop cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, dependent on the flooding of the Nile as a solution to the threat of famine and lack of food at the time. On the other hand, they used animals like water buffalo and camels to eat, plow and transport goods. In short, the Nile River is essential for people, crops, and livestock. Nile Valley, where they could obtain their livelihood. When the Ancients came together on the banks of the Nile, they produced the ancient Egyptian civilization, one of the greatest civilizations in ancient history that witnessed the construction of many temples and tombs with precious treasures and jewels. The effect of the Nile River extends to Sudan, where it contributed significantly to building the Sudanese kingdoms.
As part of the religious life interests of the ancient pharaohs and their insistence on creating many gods and goddesses for the physical elements, they honored the Nile River by creating Sobek, “God of the Nile,” or he was called “God of the Crocodile.” God of a crocodile-headed man represented fertility, wetlands, medicine, and sudden death, and the Nile River is considered Sobek’s sweat. Another god related to the Nile in ancient Egypt is “happy”; he is called “Lord of the river bringing vegetation” or “Lord of the fish and birds of the swamps,” the god of the annual floods of the Nile, which they controlled in primarily the water level, symbolizes fertility. The overflows brought rich silt to the Nile Valley lands for farming.
0 Comment