The river Nile is the longest river of Africa and is considered the life breath of Egypt and Sudan. It is 6648 kms long and runs from the mountains of Tanganayike to the Mediterranean Sea through Africa.
Egypt is called the Gift of the Nile because its valley is extremely fertile mainly due to the yearly floods and it was this fertility that made its ancient people prosperous and helped them survive calamities. Their ancient religion was based on the Nile, and the lives of the ancient Egyptians center around the river. Here once thrived one of the oldest civilizations in the world going back to more than 5000 years B.C.
The headwater lakes — Victoria, Albert and Edward, are in the tropical country, south of the equator. Most of the rain there falls during the winter months. The great lakes hold this water and feed it into the Nile gradually during the entire year.
The Blue Nile and Atbara are the river that mainly cause floods and the humus and mud are distributed by the flood waters along the banks of the lower Nile. So the land there remains a green oasis which would have been a desert otherwise.
The immense importance of the Nile for Egypt is obvious from the fact that 95% of its population lives along its bank on less than one-thirtieth of Egypt’s land. After the construction of Aswan dam, the Nile serves Egypt in a much bigger way. The dam regulates the flood waters, generates hydroelectric power and irrigates thousands of acres of formerly unproductive land.
The true source of the Nile is in the mountains of the Congo whence the Kangera flows to Lake Victoria. The river Sebat and others flow into the Nile and increase its volume considerably. From this point onwards it is called the White Nile. The Blue Nile is the longest tributary of the Nile and has its source in Ethiopia like Lake Tana. At Khartoum the Blue and White Nile come together. There are six un-navigable cataracts between this place and the sea. In Sudan the cataracts are used to produce an enormous quantity of electricity. They are circumnavigated by waterways. The two very big dams built on the Nile, and the cataracts supply a large part of Egypt’s electric power.