The Nile flows through Egypt and has its delta on the Mediterranean Sea.
The river runs generally northward through northeastern Africa before dividing into distributaries across the Nile Delta. The delta is a fertile, densely populated region on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast and has supported agriculture for thousands of years.
The Nile has two principal tributaries: the White Nile, whose headwaters are in the Great Lakes region, and the Blue Nile, which rises in Ethiopia. They meet at Khartoum in Sudan. The Blue Nile carries much of the sediment and seasonal water that historically nourished Egypt.
The Aswan High Dam, completed in the 1960s, regulates floods and generates hydroelectric power, but it also traps sediment that once reached downstream fields. Ancient Egyptian civilisation developed along the river because surrounding deserts made its water and floodplain especially valuable.