The Nile is the river that flows through Egypt and is traditionally called the world’s longest river.
The Nile runs generally northward through northeastern Africa before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Its two best-known major tributaries are the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile begins in the Great Lakes region, while the Blue Nile rises in Ethiopia and supplies much of the river’s seasonal floodwater.
Ancient Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile’s narrow fertile floodplain and delta. Before modern dams, annual flooding deposited nutrient-rich silt on farmland. The Aswan High Dam, completed in the 1970s, greatly changed the river’s flood regime and created Lake Nasser.
The Nile’s exact ranking against the Amazon has been debated because river sources and measurement methods differ. Nevertheless, the Nile remains the conventional answer in general-reference questions, and its historical importance to Egypt is undisputed. Cairo, Egypt’s capital, stands on the river and its delta region.