Come visit Egypt (Nile) part 3

The Nile (Arabic: النيل‎, An Nīl, Ancient Egyptian Iteru or Ḥ'pī, Coptic ⲫⲓⲁⲣⲱ Piaro or Phiaro, Amharic: ዓባይ^?; transliterated: ʿAbbai, but pronounced Abbai) is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world.^[3] It is 6,650 km (4,130 miles) long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan,South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda andEgypt.^[4]

The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The latter is the source of most of the water and fertile soil. The former is the longer. The White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source still undetermined but located in either Rwanda or Burundi. It flows north throughTanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia at 12°02′09″N 037°15′53″E and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

The northern section of the river flows almost entirely through desert, from Sudan into Egypt, a country whose civilization has depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egyptare found along riverbanks. The Nile ends in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

Etymology

In the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥ'pī or iteru, meaning "great river", represented by the hieroglyphs shown on the left (literally itrw, and 'waters' determinative)^[5] In Coptic, the words piaro (Sahidic) or phiaro (Bohairic) meaning "the river" (lit. p(h).iar-o "the.canal-great") come from the same ancient name.

The English name Nile (Latin: Nīlos; Greek: Νεῖλος^[6]) is thought to be ultimately derived from the Semitic Nahal meaning "river" from which the Hebrew nachal (Hebrew: נחל‎) is derived.^{[citation needed]}

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile

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