HYMN TO THE NILE
Hail to thee, O Nile! Who manifests thyself over this land, and comes to give life to Egypt! Mysterious is thy issuing forth from the darkness, on this day whereon it is celebrated! Watering the orchards created by Re, to cause all the cattle to live, you give the earth to drink, inexhaustible one! Path that descends from the sky, loving the bread of Seb and the first-fruits of Nepera, You cause the workshops of Ptah to prosper! Lord of the fish, during the inundation, no bird alights on the crops. You create the grain, you bring forth the barley, assuring perpetuity to the temples. If you cease your toil and your work, then all that exists is in anguish. If the gods suffer in heaven, then the faces of men waste away. Then He torments the flocks of Egypt, and great and small are in agony. But all is changed for mankind when He comes; He is endowed with the qualities of Nun. If He shines, the earth is joyous, every stomach is full of rejoicing, every spine is happy, every jaw-bone crushes (its food). He brings the offerings, as chief of provisioning; He is the creator of all good things, as master of energy, full of sweetness in his choice. If offerings are made it is thanks to Him. He brings forth the herbage for the flocks, and sees that each god receives his sacrifices. All that depends on Him is a precious incense. He spreads himself over Egypt, filling the granaries, renewing the marts, watching over the goods of the unhappy. He is prosperous to the height of all desires, without fatiguing Himself therefor. He brings again his lordly bark; He is not sculptured in stone, in the statutes crowned with the uraeus serpent, He cannot be contemplated. No servitors has He, no bearers of offerings! He is not enticed by incantations! None knows the place where He dwells, none discovers his retreat by the power of a written spell. No dwelling (is there) which may contain you! None penetrates within your heart! Your young men, your children applaud you and render unto you royal homage. Stable are your decrees for Egypt before your servants of the North! He stanches the water from all eyes and watches over the increase of his good things. Where misery existed, joy manifests itself; all beasts rejoice. The children of Sobek, the sons of Neith, the cycle of the gods which dwells in him, are prosperous. No more reservoirs for watering the fields! He makes mankind valiant, enriching some, bestowing his love on others. None commands at the same time as himself. He creates the offerings without the aid of Neith, making mankind for himself with multiform care. He shines when He issues forth from the darkness, to cause his flocks to prosper. It is his force that gives existence to all things; nothing remains hidden for him. Let men clothe themselves to fill his gardens. He watches over his works, producing the inundation during the night. The associate of Ptah . . . He causes all his servants to exist, all writings and divine words, and that which He needs in the North. It is with the words that He penetrates into his dwelling; He issues forth at his pleasure through the magic spells. Your unkindness brings destruction to the fish; it is then that prayer is made for the (annual) water of the season; Southern Egypt is seen in the same state as the North. Each one is with his instruments of labor. None remains behind his companions. None clothes himself with garments, The children of the noble put aside their ornaments. He night remains silent, but al1 is changed by the inundation; it is a healing-balm for all mankind. Establisher of justice! Mankind desires you, supplicating you to answer their prayers; You answer them by the inundation! Men offer the first-fruits of corn; all the gods adore you! The birds descend not on the soil. It is believed that with your hand of gold you make bricks of silver! But we are not nourished on lapis-lazuli; wheat alone gives vigor. A festal song is raised for you on the harp, with the accompaniment of the hand. Your young men and your children acclaim you and prepare their (long) exercises. You are the august ornament of the earth, letting your bark advance before men, lifting up the heart of women in labor, and loving the multitude of the flocks. When you shine in the royal city, the rich man is sated with good things, the poor man even disdains the lotus; all that is produced is of the choicest; all the plants exist for your children. If you have refused (to grant) nourishment, the dwelling is silent, devoid of all that is good, the country falls exhausted. O inundation of the Nile, offerings are made unto you, men are immolated to you, great festivals are instituted for you. Birds are sacrificed to you, gazelles are taken for you in the mountain, pure flames are prepared for you. Sacrifice is metle to every god as it is made to the Nile. The Nile has made its retreats in Southern Egypt, its name is not known beyond the Tuau. The god manifests not his forms, He baffles all conception. Men exalt him like the cycle of the gods, they dread him who creates the heat, even him who has made his son the universal master in order to give prosperity to Egypt. Come (and) prosper! Come (and) prosper! O Nile, come (and) prosper! O you who make men to live through his flocks and his flocks through his orchards! Come (and) prosper, come, O Nile, come (and) prosper!
THE NILE RIVER, longest river in the world, is located in northeastern Africa. From its principal source, Lake Victoria, in east central Africa, the Nile flows north through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of 5584 km (3470 mi). From its remotest headstream in Burundi, the river is 6,695 km (4,160 mi) long. The river basin covers an area of more than 3,349,000 sq km (more than 1,293,000 sq mi). The Ruvyironza River of Burundi is regarded as the ultimate source of the Nile. The Ruvyironza is one of the upper branches of the Kagera River, which follows the Rwanda-Tanzania and Uganda-Tanzania borders into Lake Victoria. On leaving Lake Victoria near the now-flooded Ripon Falls, this section of the Nile, called the Victoria Nile, flows northwest for about 500 km (about 300 mi) through Lake Kyoga and then over rapids between rocky walls, until it enters Lake Albert. Leaving the northern end of Lake Albert as the Albert Nile, it flows through northern Uganda, and in Sudan becomes the Bahr al Jabal. In south central Sudan the river flows sluggishly through the vast, swampy As Sudd. This unnavigable barrier has historically separated the Arab-dominated regions of the north from the black African regions of the south. At its junction with the Bahr al Ghazal, which is fed by numerous tributaries, the river becomes the White Nile (Bahr al Abyad).
At the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the White Nile is joined by the Blue Nile, which flows about 1370 km (about 850 mi) from its source, Lake T'ana in the Ethiopian highlands, where it is known as the Abbai. Northeast of Khartoum, the Nile is joined by the 'Atbarah, the last tributary to feed the river, and then makes an S-shaped bend through the Nubian Desert. Downstream from Khartoum, the Nile passes through six cataracts (waterfalls), five in Sudan and one in Egypt, near Aswan. Separating into the Rosetta and Damietta branches north of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the Nile enters the Mediterranean Sea through a 250 km- (160 mi-) wide delta. The landscape along the river varies from rain forests and mountains in the south to savannas and swamps in southern Sudan to barren deserts in the north. Fish found in the Nile include Nile perch and tilapia. Among wildlife, hippopotamuses are common in the upper Nile, while crocodiles are found throughout the river's length.
Irrigation along much of the river supports the growth of agricultural products such as cotton, wheat, sorghum, dates, citrus fruits, sugarcane, and various legumes. Local communities fish its waters. Ferries and barges navigate between Aswan and Qina in Egypt, between the third and fourth cataracts in northern Sudan, from Juba to Kusti in southern Sudan, and on Lakes Nasser and Victoria. Principal river ports are Luxor and Aswan in Egypt and WadiHalfa', Dunqulah, Kuraymah, Kusti, Malakal and Juba in Sudan. Tourism is important around ancient Egyptian sites near the river, such as Al Karnak and the pyramids at Giza. To raise water levels for irrigation in the late 19th century, several dams were built across the Egyptian Nile, the most important being at Qina, Asyut, and north of Cairo. The first dam on the Nile, the Aswan Dam, was built in 1902 and heightened in 1936. The Sennar Dam was built across the Blue Nile south of Khartoum following World War I (1914-1918) to provide irrigation water for Sudanese cotton plantations. Hydroelectric dams were constructed at Jabal al Awliya' on the White Nile (1937), Owen Falls in Uganda (1954), and Roseires on the Blue Nile (1962). The Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, impounds one of the world's largest reservoirs, Lake Nasser. Annual summer flooding of the Nile once deposited rich sediment along its banks, creating fertile farmland. However, the dams now control the flooding, drastically reducing sedimentation and fertility. The dams' environmental impact has been profound, as stretches of the river above the dams have become clogged with silt, and decreased flooding has led to increased erosion and greater salt content in the soil and water of the delta. Local communities and ancient sites in Egypt and Sudan were either submerged or relocated because of the dams.
The first great African civilization developed in the northern Nile Valley in about 5000 BC. Dependent on agriculture, this state, called Egypt, relied on the flooding of the Nile for irrigation and new soils. It dominated vast areas of northeastern Africa for millennia. Ruled by Egypt for about 1800 years, the Kush region of northern Sudan subjugated Egypt in the 8th century BC. Pyramids, temples, and other monuments of these civilizations blanket the river valley in Egypt and northern Sudan. Until the middle of the 1800s, the source of the Nile was one of the world's great mysteries. Ancient Greeks wrote that the river originated in snowcapped highlands. Noted Western explorers of the Nile include British explorers John Hanning Speke, who reached Lake Victoria in 1858, and Samuel White Baker, who sighted Lake Albert in 1864; German explorer Georg August Schweinfurth explored the Bahr al Ghazal between 1868 and 1871. An Anglo-American, Henry Morton Stanley, circumnavigated Lake Victoria in 1875 and explored Lake Edward and the Ruwenzori Range in 1889.
European powers gained control over most of the countries of the Nile basin in the late 19th century. Britain established its power in Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya; Germany ruled what are now Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi; and Belgium governed what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). After World War I (1914-1918) German territory was divided between Britain and Belgium, with Britain controlling Tanzania, and Belgium gaining Rwanda and Burundi. Ethiopia remained an independent state. European power in Egypt and Sudan ended in the 1950s and elsewhere in the 1960s. The 1959 Nile Waters Agreement resolved an international dispute concerning the equitable division of the river's water among the countries of the region.
HERODOTUS: THE NILE FLOODS
When the Nile is in flood, it overflows not only the Delta but also the lands called Libyan and Arabian, as far as two days' journey from either bank in places, and sometimes more than this, sometimes less. Concerning its nature, I could not learn anything either from the priests or from any others. Yet I was anxious to learn from them why the Nile comes down with a rising flood for a hundred days from the summer solstice; and when this number of days is passed, sinks again with a diminishing stream, so that the river is low for the whole winter until the summer solstice again. I was not able to get any information from any of the Egyptians regarding this, when I asked them what power the Nile has to be contrary in nature to all other rivers. I wished to know this, and asked; also, why no breezes blew from it as from every other river.
But some of the Greeks, wishing to be notable for cleverness, put forward three opinions about this river, two of which I would not even mention except just to show what they are. One of them maintains that the Etesian winds are the cause of the river being in flood, because they hinder the Nile from emptying into the sea. But there are many times when the Etesian winds do not blow, yet the Nile does the same as before. And further, if the Etesian winds were the cause, then the other rivers which flow contrary to those winds should be affected like the Nile, and even more so, since being smaller they have a weaker current. Yet there are many rivers in Syria and many in Libya, and they behave nothing like the Nile. The second opinion is less grounded on knowledge than the previous, though it is more marvellous to the ear: according to it, the river effects what it does because it flows from Ocean, which flows around the whole world. The third opinion is by far the most plausible, yet the most erroneous of all. It has no more truth in it than the others. According to this, the Nile flows from where snows melt; but it flows from Libya through the midst of Ethiopia, and comes out into Egypt.
How can it flow from snow, then, seeing that it comes from the hottest places to lands that are for the most part cooler? In fact, for a man who can reason about such things, the principal and strongest evidence that the river is unlikely to flow from snows is that the winds blowing from Libya and Ethiopia are hot. In the second place, the country is rainless and frostless; but after snow has fallen, it has to rain within five days; so that if it snowed, it would rain in these lands. And thirdly, the men of the country are black because of the heat. Moreover, kites and swallows live there all year round, and cranes come every year to these places to winter there, flying from the wintry weather of Scythia. Now, were there but the least fall of snow in this country through which the Nile flows and where it rises, none of these things would happen, as necessity proves.
The opinion about Ocean is grounded in obscurity and needs no disproof; for I know of no Ocean river; and I suppose that Homer or some older poet invented this name and brought it into his poetry. If, after having condemned the opinions proposed, I must indicate what I myself think about these obscure matters, I shall say why I think the Nile floods in the summer. During the winter, the sun is driven by storms from his customary course and passes over the inland parts of Libya. For the briefest demonstration, everything has been said; for whatever country this god is nearest, or over, it is likely that that land is very thirsty for water and that the local rivers are dried up.
A lengthier demonstration goes as follows. In its passage over the inland parts of Libya, the sun does this: as the air is always clear in that region, the land warm, and the winds cool, the sun does in its passage exactly as it would do in the summer passing through the middle of the heaven: it draws the water to itself, and having done so, expels it away to the inland regions, and the winds catch it and scatter and dissolve it; and, as is to be expected, those that blow from that country, the south and the southwest, are the most rainy of all winds. Yet I think that the sun never lets go of all of the water that it draws up from the Nile yearly, but keeps some back near itself. Then, as the winter becomes milder, the sun returns to the middle of the heaven, and after that draws from all rivers alike. Meanwhile, the other rivers are swollen to high flood by the quantity of water that falls into them from the sky, because the country is rained on and cut into gullies; but in the summer they are low, lacking the rain and being drawn up too by the sun. But the Nile, being fed by no rain, and being the only river drawn up by the sun in winter, at this time falls far short of the height that it had in summer; which is but natural; for in summer all other waters too and not it alone are attracted to the sun, but in the winter it alone is afflicted.
I am convinced, therefore, that the sun is the cause of this phenomenon. The dryness of the air in these parts is also caused by the sun, in my opinion, because it burns its way through it; hence, it is always summer in the inland part of Libya. But were the stations of the seasons changed, so that the south wind and the summer had their station where the north wind and winter are now set, and the north wind was where the south wind is now, if this were so, the sun, when driven from mid-heaven by the winter and the north wind, would pass over the inland parts of Europe as it now passes over Libya, and I think that in its passage over all Europe it would have the same effect on the Ister as it now does on the Nile. And as to why no breeze blows from the river, this is my opinion: it is not natural that any breeze blow from very hot places; breezes always come from that which is very cold.