Nile
called by the Egyptians Hapi Mu, and by the Hebrews Sihor, the river NILE, called by the Egyptians Hapi of N. E. Africa, formed by the union of the Bahr-el-Abiad and the Bahr-el-Azrek. Captains Speke and Grant discovered that the first of these, the true Nile, flowed out of the Lake Victoria Nyanza.
The second, the Blue Nile, has its source in Abyssinia. The White Nile, from its Ripon Falls, lat. 0° 20′ N., long. 33° 30′ E., flows N. W. and W. for about 230 miles, till it enters the Lake Albert Nyanza, within 30 miles of its N. extremity, whence the river again emerges. On issuing from the Victoria Nyanza the Nile rushes down due N. like a mountain torrent, running off at last into long flats and expanding so as to form what is called Lake Ibrahim Pasha. In this part of its course the river is navigable, and continues to be so till it reaches the near the Albert Nyanza, the river forms a series of rapids. Between the two Nyanzas the Nile is known as the Victoria Nile or Somerset river. From Assuan to the sea the average fall of the Nile is two inches to a mile, and its mean velocity about 3 miles an hour. It waters and fertilizes the whole length of the land of Egypt. The delta of the Nile extends from lat. 30° 10' N. to 31° 30' N., and has a base on the Mediterranean of about 150 miles. In it the Nile spreads out into numerous streams, the two principal being those of Rosetta and N., and has a base on the Mediterranean of about 150 miles. In it the Nile spreads from its exit from the lake to the sea, is about 3,766 miles, measured along its course, or 2,200 miles in direct distance.
A great feature peculiar to the great with the Atbara to its mouth, a distance river of Egypt is that from its junction With the ancient with the Atbara to its mouth, a distance of upward of 1,500 miles, it receives no affluent whatever.
Egyptians the river was held sacred; the god Nilus was one of the lesser divinities. globe, for it has risen to within a few hours of the same time, and to within a few inches of the same height, year after year, for unknown ages. The question of the source of the Nile is at once the oldest reference to the map of Africa the latest and the most recent of geography. By results of modern research will be seen.
The greatest dam (or barrage, as it is called) in the world is near Assuan, at there is no rainfall and the people depend entirely on irrigation to water their there is no rainfall and the people depend crops, and as they have only one river all water must come from the Nile. The in reserve, in a vast reservoir, the sur- plus water which in the summer can be in reserve, in a vast reservoir, the surplus water which in the summer can be distributed over the fields, and make productive all the year round hundreds of square miles of otherwise barren land.
See DAM; EGYPT.