The Nile is the river that flows through Egypt and is commonly described as one of the world's longest rivers.
The river runs northward through northeastern Africa before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Its two principal tributaries are the White Nile, whose farthest headwaters are associated with the Great Lakes region, and the Blue Nile, which rises in Ethiopia and supplies much of the system's seasonal water and sediment.
Ancient Egyptian civilization developed along the river's narrow fertile floodplain and delta. Annual flooding once renewed agricultural soils, although the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, now regulates the flow and created Lake Nasser. Egypt's modern population remains concentrated close to the Nile and its delta.
The exact ranking of the Nile and Amazon depends on how headwaters and mouths are defined. That measurement debate does not change the Nile's central geographic and historical importance to Egypt.