Great River #2

The Nile River

The Nile river is the longest river in the world. It's 4,132 miles in length and 1,107,000 square-mile basin. The Nile river is made up of two rivers the White Nile and the Blue Nile. These rivers meet in Sudan and then go on on their large journey. The white Nile is a lot bigger then the Blue Nile..

Discovery of the Nile
Egypt was blessed by the Nile in many different ways. Because of the Nile Egypt became one of the great cradles of world civilization. The Nile provided the people that moved to it's valley in the year 5000 BC water to drink, irrigation water, farming opportunity, fish and waterfowl for food, papyrus reeds grew on the banks of the Nile and they were used for boats and for houses. these reeds also allowed the ancient Egyptians to make paper on which to write important documents. The Nile River was guarded by desert on either side of it and that offered protection. In ancient Egypt the Nile would flood yearly covering up the farmlands. This would make the land very fertile for farming, thus improving Egypt's agriculture. But the Aswan high dam stopped the great river from flooding each year.

Equator
The equator is an imaginary circle on the surface of the earth, equidistant from the north pole and the south pole, and dividing the earth in half. The Nile has to cross the Equator in order to continue its long journey. Marine Officer James Corbett says on the Equator there are chunks of vegetation that breaks loose from the shore. This makes it very wavy and hard to steer. Some boats engines give out and people are stranded in the middle of the Equator. All year thunderstorms crash and it rains and pours. The Nile is not the prettiest river when people are crossing it.

History of the Nile
The first few settlers of the Nile River built houses of papyrus reeds that were all tied together in columns, with thatched roofs. The walls were made of straw, mud, and clay. Later settlers used the clay to build bricks. With the bricks they built stronger houses. Small villages started to appear along the Nile River. The people of these villages learned to irrigate and divert the water during the flooding season. As time passed the residents of the Nile River became better farmers.

The Land Around The Nile
The land on and next to the Nile has growing plants as do the oases, but other wise the land is all dry deserts. The land gets no water there for they can not grow much. But where the little water is they grow trees and plants and there most popular tings dates. The dates provided food and shade.

Water Use of the Nile
The Nile river's mingled waters are poured into the Mediterranean. Many Cities get their water supply from the Nile such as Burundi, Rwandi, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. One 8th of the Niles water is supplied by Atbara.

Weather
Most of the weather around the Nile river is hot and very dry. They hardly get any rain. Instead of having rain or snow storms they have sand storms. Sand storms are when the strong winds blow the sand around and force it into sand hills which are hill made of sand. These sand storms are not a good thing to be stuck in because when the sand is being thrown around it feels like sand paper on your skin.

Uganda
The population in Uganda is estimated to be 19,386,000. It is located in East Central Africa and it is bordered by Tanzania, Rwanda, Zaire, Sudan, and Kenya. The capital of Uganda is Kampala. Uganda is located across the equator. Lake Kyoga is located in the center of the country. The highest point in Uganda is Margherita Peak with an elevation of 16,794 ft. The main type of economy is agriculture. They farm these types of crops-cassava, sweet potatoes, plantains, millet, and sorghum, the big producer crop is coffee with 90% of all of the cash crops. The other cash crops are cotton, tea, and tobacco.

Sudan
Sudan is the largest country on the African continent. One major topographical feature of Sudan is the Nile river. The White Nile goes into the country through the Uganda border and meets the Blue Nile at a point near Khartum, and forms the Nile proper. the Blue Nile rises in the Ethiopian plateau , and flows across east central Sudan.

Egypt
There rose a leader in the year 3100b.c. He came from Upper Egypt. His name was Menes. He started a dynasty that would rule for about 3000 years. Menes organized and had extensive irrigation ditches built to provide more land for cultivation. One of the achievements that he made was that he built a temple inside of his capital called Ptah. The other achievement that he accomplished was a tomb for himself. He would set the pace for all of his successors. Menes was known as a god to the residents of the Nile River and to people today.

Ethiopia
The population of Ethiopia is about 51,000,000. It is located in northeast Africa. It is also formerly known as Abyssinia. It is bordered by Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Addis Ababa is the capitol. Ethiopia's largest lake is named Lake Tana. In Ethiopia the main export is coffee with 60% of all exports. The other leading exports are oilseeds, hides skins, and grain. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia.

Nile Crocodile
Some crocodiles live on the banks of the Nile river. They are called the Nile Crocodile. As the male reptiles, with four distinct heart chambers, are catching their pray with a little help from their strong tail the female is at home laying eggs. The female crocodiles starts being eligible to lay eggs around the age of 10 years old. She lays 20 to 90 eggs depending on how old she is. These crocodiles lay their eggs along the sandy banks of the Nile river where the sit on the eggs till a baby crocodile is hatched. The Nile is a big part of a crocodiles life. These animals are blamed for the deaths of a number of people each year.