The Nile flows through Cairo and forms Egypt’s main waterway.
The Nile runs northward through northeastern Africa before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. In Egypt, it crosses the desert and supports most settlement, farming and industry. Cairo, the country’s capital, developed on and around the river’s banks.
The river has two principal tributaries: the White Nile, whose remote headwaters are in the Great Lakes region, and the Blue Nile, which rises in Ethiopia. They meet at Khartoum in Sudan. The Blue Nile contributes much of the water and sediment historically associated with Egypt’s annual flood.
For thousands of years, seasonal flooding shaped Egyptian agriculture and civilization. The Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, greatly reduced uncontrolled floods and created Lake Nasser. It also trapped much of the sediment that once replenished downstream soils, so modern farming relies heavily on irrigation and fertilizers.