The Nile

Most of the remainder of the trip was along the Nile, so I thought you might want some information about this majestic river

The Nile is the longest river in the world. Sudan is the largest country in Africa. Let’s hear it for superlatives.

The Nile’s source has been a mystery for centuries and I’m still not clear when they say that Lake Victoria in Uganda is the major source of the river, though the Ruvyironza River of Burundi is regarded as the ultimate source of the Nile. In either case, it’s one long river. From Lake Victoria, it runs north through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea – a trip of about 3,500 miles. If you measure from its remotest headstream, as they say, it’s over 4,100 miles. (The Amazon is the next longest, followed by the Yangtse and Mississippi Rivers. The Mississippi River is 2,340 miles long, but if you include the river system from the headwaters of the Missouri River it reaches 3,710 miles – in case you’re interested in how the Nile compares to our great river)


This long river is actually called the White Nile until it reaches Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. There, it is joined by the Blue Nile – which flows from somewhere in Ethiopia – and the Blue and White Niles merge into one unified Nile, reaching a state of total Nileosity. The White Nile through Sudan is filled with humongous crocodiles that regularly take the lives of locals washing their clothes, bathing, or getting water. The crocs grab a person with their large powerful jaws and drag them into the water and drown them before eating them.
There are a few areas along the Nile where the UN has constructed barriers in the river which keep the crocs out and allow safe use of the river. The hippos are also quite amazing.

New Yorkers often refer to the Nile as Da Nile, which can cause mass confusion when a New Yorker makes an emergency call while drowning in the Nile– Their plea for help may be interpreted as: I am drowning in “denial.” Their would-be helpers might simply tell this person to seek intensive therapy. Who knows how many lives have been lost due to poor diction? I should make one of those plastic bracelets to remember those whose fate of being born in Brooklyn and having gone for a swim in the Nile has cased them their lives. Then again, I may be in denial that I have lost my mind.