EcoNile — The Nile and Its Water | econile.org
An ordered itinerary of the Nile from its two sources — Lake Victoria and Lake Tana — through Khartoum to the Mediterranean delta.
The Nile runs 7,088 kilometres (4,404 mi) from source to mouth, a distance measured in 2009 along the river centerline using satellite imagery. This makes it the longest river in the world. The course is best understood as an ordered sequence, beginning at the two source regions and ending at the Mediterranean Sea.
The itinerary begins at the headwaters. The White Nile starts near Lake Victoria and flows north through Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile starts near Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows northwest. These are the two starting points of the river system, and they lie in different countries and different climatic zones.
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The next stage is the confluence at Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Here the White Nile and the Blue Nile merge. From Khartoum the combined river continues north across northeast Africa, passing through arid terrain where physical water scarcity is common.
The final stage is the mouth. The Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea through a delta. The full distance from the headwaters to this mouth is 7,088 kilometres, as measured in 2009 along the river centerline using satellite imagery.
Following the river north in this order — sources, confluence, arid middle course, Mediterranean delta — shows how a single river system links equatorial East Africa, the Ethiopian Highlands, Sudan, and the Mediterranean coast.
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