The Nile is the river that flows through Egypt and reaches the Mediterranean Sea.
The Nile runs generally northward through northeastern Africa. Its major branches are the White Nile and the Blue Nile, which meet at Khartoum in Sudan. The Blue Nile rises in Ethiopia and carries much of the river’s seasonal sediment and water, while the White Nile has its headwaters in the Great Lakes region of East Africa.
Ancient Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile’s narrow fertile floodplain. Before the construction of modern dams, annual flooding deposited nutrient-rich silt that supported agriculture in an otherwise extremely arid environment. The river also served as a transport route linking settlements and helped unify Upper and Lower Egypt.
The Nile forms a broad delta before entering the Mediterranean. The Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, greatly reduced flooding and created Lake Nasser, while also changing the natural movement of sediment. The Nile’s exact length is debated because different measurements use different headwaters, but it is conventionally described as about 6,650 kilometres long.