Week 3 - Nile River

The Nile river is one of the world’s largest rivers in terms of length. Spanning a variety of countries in northeast Africa including Egypt, Sudan, and Kenya. Due to its length, volume, and location the Nile is a critical resource for millions of people. Interestingly enough the Nile is in competition with the Amazon river for the world’s largest river.

While I wouldn’t use the Nile as a great example of a meandering river, I would say that it does meander some. Basically, any river in a pliable environment that has disturbances is going to form meandering bends over time. The Nile is no exception and you can see where the water goes back and forth from one bank to the other. Slowly over time it has formed curves along its path.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Nile-River/media/415347/158248

The Nile has two main tributaries. Tributaries are areas where the river divides into smaller rivers. The main tributary is the While Nile and the other tributary is called the Blue Nile. The White Nile comes from Lake Victoria in Uganda. The Blue Nile feeds in from Ethiopia. Both of these connect in Sudan and flow north towards Egypt.

Each year the Nile floods due to heavy precipitation but since the creation of dams on the river it was kept this from happening. In fact, there is a holiday in Egypt that celebrates the yearly floods that would come since their well-being depended on it.