Since ancient Egypt and Rome, people have been trying to trace the source of the Nile. According to ancient Egyptian tradition, the god Osiris is said to have found the source of the Nile and sown it in the ground to bring life to the people. Meanwhile, Roman explorers like Herodotus also kept mementos of the Nile in their world exploration.
Tracing the source of the Nile – the longest river on Earth with a length of more than 6,650km – has puzzled people for thousands of years. Even today, in an age of abundant geophysical knowledge and rich satellite systems, this problem is not simple.
The Nile River is the longest river in the world, flowing through northeastern Africa with a length of more than 6,650km. (Photo: Emre Akkoyun).
In short, the Nile has two main sources: the Blue Nile from Ethiopia – which contributes two-thirds of the Nile’s total water – and the White Nile from the Great Lakes chain of Africa. However, if you look back at history, things will not be so brief.
The ancient Romans had the expression ” Nili caput quaerere”, which means “Find the source of the Nile” in Latin. This idiom is used to describe a frantic attempt to do the impossible.
Not afraid of challenges, the Romans once attempted to trace the source of the Nile on a mission set by Emperor Nero in AD 60-61. With the help of Ethiopian guides, a small group of royal bodyguards Emperor traveled along the Nile, to the mysterious land of Africa.
It is not clear where the search ended, but according to reports, the bodyguards reached a large body of water and believed it to be the source. Some have suggested that this place is a canyon near present-day Juba, South Sudan. Others think they have gone further south, near Murchison Falls in Uganda.
Regardless of the location, the bodyguards failed to solve the mystery. Emperor Nero died by suicide in 68, and it seems that the mission was also abandoned after the Romans ruled out the possibility of crossing over to Egypt, invading Africa more deeply.
Before the Romans, the ancient Egyptians were also keen to find out the origin of the Nile, especially since this civilization relied on the water of the Nile to nourish the soil and as a transportation route. According to the story, the Egyptians followed the Nile to the capital Khartoum, Sudan. An expedition led by pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ruled Egypt in the 3rd century BC) identified the Blue Nile as possibly originating in the mountains of Ethiopia.
Understanding the Blue Nile was on track, but there is no evidence that the ancient Egyptians ever discovered another important piece of the puzzle: the White Nile.
Lake Victoria seen from space. (Photo: ESA)
Today, most experts agree that the Nile has two main sources: the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which meet in Khartoum, Sudan, before continuing north, to Egypt. The Blue Nile originates in Lake Tana in Ethiopia, while the White Nile originates in the area around Lake Victoria in Jinja, Uganda.
This is why Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake by area, is frequently cited as the source of the Nile. However, as the famous explorer Christopher Ondaatje explained in 2016 Geographical magazine, Victoria itself is a reservoir fed by other rivers.
In 1996, Ondaatje ventured out on a trans-African expedition to determine the source of the Nile and discovered that the waters of Lake Victoria flowed into Lake Albert. The White Nile does not flow directly from Lake Albert but from the Kagera and Semliki rivers. These two rivers originate in the Ruwenzori Mountains in the Congo.
Ultimately, he concluded, the White Nile probably originated in the Kagera and Semliki rivers. “The Ruwenzori Range is as important a source of Nile water as Lake Victoria,” he wrote.
In short, the Nile does not have a single source but is fed by a complex system of other rivers and bodies of water c . While many people think it’s possible to pinpoint an exact source based on a map, the truth is rarely so simple.