{"id":1023,"date":"2020-05-16T21:01:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T21:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seaempowerment.org\/?p=1023"},"modified":"2020-05-17T00:11:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T00:11:56","slug":"the-beauty-of-river-nile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seaempowerment.org\/?p=1023","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty of River Nile"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unarguably the longest river in the world, approximating 4,258 miles (6,853 kilometers) long, considered the pride of Africa. The river runs through 11 countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.The Nile waters flow at an average volume of 300 million cubic meters (79.2 billion gallons) per day, according to Travelling Along Rivers, a Dutch bilingual travel magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

The Nile has two major tributaries: The longer White Nile, considered the prime stream and headwaters; and The Blue Nile, which carries about two-thirds of the river’s water volume and most of the silt.<\/p>\n

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that “Egypt was the gift of the Nile”.<\/em> An unending source of sustenance, it played a crucial role in the development of Egyptian civilization. Because the river overflowed its banks annually and deposited new layers of silt, the surrounding land was very fertile. The Ancient Egyptians cultivated and traded wheat, flax, papyrus and other crops around the Nile. Wheat was a crucial crop in the famine-plagued Middle East. This trading system secured Egypt’s diplomatic relationships with other countries, and contributed to economic stability. Far-reaching trade has been carried on along the Nile since ancient times. A tune, Hymn to the Nile, was created and sung by the ancient Egyptian peoples about the flooding of the Nile River and all of the miracles it brought to Ancient Egyptian civilization.<\/p>\n

The Nile River and its banks are abundant with many varieties of animal life. These include the rhinoceros, African tigerfish (the “piranha of Africa”), Nile monitors, enormous Vundu catfish, hippopotamuses, wildebeests, baboons, frogs, mongooses, turtles, tortoises and over 300 species of birds. Hundreds of thousands of water birds spend their winters in the Nile Delta. This includes the world’s largest concentrations of little gulls and whiskered terns.<\/p>\n

Possibly the most well-known animal and most feared is the Nile crocodile. This fearsome predator has a reputation as a man eater and rightly so. Nile crocodiles can reach lengths of 18 to 20 feet, and unlike their American cousins, can be quite aggressive toward people. Estimates say that about 200 people a year are killed by these reptiles, according to National Geographic<\/p>\n

Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when British explorer John Hanning Speke<\/strong> reached its southern shore while traveling with Richard Francis Burton<\/strong> to explore central Africa and locate the great lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this “vast expanse of open water” for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom. Burton, recovering from illness and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to be the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community and interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke’s discovery. British explorer and missionary David Livingstone pushed too far west and entered the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed Speke’s discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the lake’s northern shore.<\/p>\n

Sources:
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Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n

National Geographic<\/a><\/p>\n

Travelling A\u00a0 long Rivers
\n\u2022\u00a0 Ancient Egypt Online: The Nile River<\/p>\n