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39-690: Lord Prudhoe mentions this town in the 1829 diary he kept while travelling in the Sennar. At the time it was the residence of one Sheikh Suliman, ruler of the lower reach of the Blue Nile (Baḥr al-Azraq), for which he paid 1500 ounces of gold to the Egyptians out of his revenues. The Roseires Dam is located just upstream of the town. El Roseires features a Tropical Savanna Climate ( Aw ) 11°51′N 34°23′E  /  11.850°N 34.383°E  / 11.850; 34.383 This Sudan location article

78-413: A documentary about their journey afterwards. In 2000, American and National Geographic reader, Kenneth Frantz, saw a photo taken by Nevada Wier for National Geographic which would lead him to found the charity Bridges to Prosperity . This photo showed a bridge broken during World War II, with 10 men on either side of the broken span pulling each other across the dangerous gap by rope. This historic bridge

117-572: A large quantity of it into the irrigation canals) and in spite of opening the sluice gates during the flooding in order to flush the sediments, the reservoir is assumed to have lost about a third of its storage capacity. In 1966, the Roseires Dam was added to help irrigating the Gezira Scheme. The Jebel Aulia Dam on the White Nile south of Khartoum was completed in 1937 in order to compensate for

156-662: A non-local to explore this reach of the river was undertaken by the American W.W. Macmillan in 1902, assisted by the Norwegian explorer B.H. Jenssen; Jenssen proceeded upriver from Khartoum while Macmillan sailed downstream from Lake Tana. However, Jenssen's boats were blocked by the rapids at Famaka short of the Sudan-Ethiopia border, and Macmillan's boats were wrecked shortly after they had been launched. Macmillan encouraged Jenssen to try to sail upstream from Khartoum again in 1905, but he

195-484: A point near the Sudanese border led by explorer John Blashford-Snell . The team used specially-built Avon Inflatables and modified Royal Engineers assault boats to navigate the formidable rapids. Subsequent rafting expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s generally only covered parts of the river canyon. In 1999, writer Virginia Morell and photographer Nevada Wier made the journey by raft from Lake Tana to Sudan, publishing

234-559: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Blue Nile The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia . It travels for approximately 1,450 km (900 mi) through Ethiopia and Sudan . Along with the White Nile , it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water to the Nile during the rainy season . The distance of

273-510: The Ancient Egyptian religion , Hapi was the god of the Nile and the annual flooding of it. Both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding. The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of Hapi . Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise desert, Hapi symbolised fertility. The god Osiris was also closely associated with

312-679: The Assiut Barrage , both completed in 1902. However, they were still not able to retain sufficient water to cope with the driest summers, despite the Aswan Low Dam being raised twice, in 1907–1912 and in 1929–1933. During the 1920s, the Sennar Dam was constructed on the Blue Nile as a reservoir in order to supply water to the huge Gezira Scheme on a regular basis. It was the first dam on the Nile to retain large amounts of sedimentation (and to divert

351-561: The Beles . The Blue Nile then heads northwest into Sudan. It travels for approximately 650 km (400 mi), flowing past Er Roseires and receiving the Dinder River on its right bank at Dinder . At Khartoum , the Blue Nile joins the White Nile and, as the Nile , flows through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria . The flow of the Blue Nile reaches maximum volume in

390-592: The Delta Barrages and wide systems of new canals were built, changing the irrigation system from the traditional basin irrigation to perennial irrigation whereby farmland could be irrigated throughout the year. Thereby, many crops could be harvested twice or even three times a year and agricultural output was increased dramatically. In 1873, Isma'il Pasha commissioned the construction of the Ibrahimiya Canal , thereby greatly extending perennial irrigation. Although

429-1176: The Ethiopia–Sudan border . Those on its left bank, in downstream order, include the Wanqa River, the Bashilo River , the Walaqa River , the Wanchet River , the Jamma River , the Muger River , the Guder River , the Agwel River, the Nedi River, the Didessa River and the Dabus River . Those on the right side, also in downstream order, include the Handassa, Tul, Abaya, Sade, Tammi, Cha, Shita, Suha, Muga , Gulla , Temcha , Bachat, Katlan, Jiba, Chamoga, Weter and

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468-656: The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam , a 6000-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the river. The dam is expected to be a boost for the Ethiopian economy. Sudan and Egypt, however, voiced their concerns over a potential reduction in water available. Electricity generation began in February 2022. The first European known to have seen the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the river's source was Pedro Páez , a Spanish Jesuit who reached

507-517: The gauge readings at Aswan to the lower parts of the kingdom where the data had to be converted to the local circumstances. The Egyptian year was divided into the three seasons of Akhet (Inundation), Peret (Growth), and Shemu (Harvest). Akhet covered the Egyptian flood cycle. This cycle was so consistent that the Egyptians timed its onset using the heliacal rising of Sirius , the key event used to set their calendar . The first indications of

546-521: The Blue Nile floods erode a vast amount of fertile soil from the Ethiopian Highlands and carry it downstream as silt , turning the water dark brown or almost black. The Blue Nile is vital to the livelihood of Egypt: as the most significant tributary of the Nile, it contributes over 85% of the Nile's streamflow. Though shorter than the White Nile, 59% of the water that reaches Egypt originates from

585-518: The Blue Nile has a total length of 1,450 kilometres (900 mi), of which 800 kilometres (500 mi) are inside Ethiopia. The Blue Nile originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia (where it is called the Abay River). The river flows generally south before entering a canyon about 400 km (250 mi) long, about 30 km (19 mi) from Lake Tana, which is a tremendous obstacle for travel and communication between north and south Ethiopia. The canyon

624-527: The Blue Nile's low waters in winter, but it was still not possible to overcome a period of very low waters in the Nile and thus avoid occasional drought , which had plagued Egypt since ancient times. In order to overcome these problems, Harold Edwin Hurst , a British hydrologist in the Egyptian Public Works from 1906 until many years after his retirement age, studied the fluctuations of the water levels in

663-553: The British, during their first period in Egypt , improved and extended this system, it was not able to store large amounts of water and to fully retain the annual flooding. In order to further improve irrigation, Sir William Willcocks , in his role as director general of reservoirs for Egypt, planned and supervised the construction of the Aswan Low Dam , the first true storage reservoir , and

702-490: The Ethiopian highlands via the Blue Nile. The river is also an important resource for Sudan, where the Roseires Dam and Sennar Dam contribute to the 80% of the country's electricity generation from hydropower . These dams also help irrigate the Gezira Scheme , which is most famous for its high-quality cotton , as well as wheat and animal feed crop production in the area. In November 2012, Ethiopia began construction of

741-648: The Nile The flooding of the Nile (commonly referred to as the inundation) has been an important natural cycle in Nubia and Egypt since ancient times . It is celebrated by Egyptians as an annual holiday for two weeks starting August 15, known as Wafaa El-Nil . It is also celebrated in the Coptic Church by ceremonially throwing a martyr 's relic into the river, hence the name, The Martyr's Finger ( Coptic : ⲡⲓⲧⲏⲃ ⲛⲙⲁⲣⲧⲏⲣⲟⲥ , Arabic : Esba` al-shahīd ). The flooding of

780-535: The Nile was poetically described in myth as Isis 's tears of sorrow for Osiris when killed by his brother Set . The flooding of the Nile is the result of the yearly monsoon between May and August causing enormous precipitations on the Ethiopian Highlands whose summits reach heights of up to 4,550 m (14,930 ft). Most of this rainwater is taken by the Blue Nile and by the Atbarah River into

819-579: The Nile proper was also reached in 1629 by the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Jerónimo Lobo and in 1770 by the Scottish explorer James Bruce . Although European explorers contemplated tracing the course of the Nile from the Blue Nile's confluence with the White Nile to Lake Tana, the Blue Nile Canyon has discouraged all attempts since Frédéric Cailliaud 's attempt in 1821. The first serious attempt by

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858-576: The Nile, and already in 1946 submitted an elaborate plan for how a "century storage" could be achieved to cope with exceptional dry seasons occurring statistically once in a hundred years. His ideas of further reservoirs using Lake Victoria , Lake Albert and Lake Tana and of reducing the evaporation in the Sudd by digging the Jonglei Canal were opposed by the states concerned. Eventually, Gamal Abdel Nasser , President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970, opted for

897-480: The Nile, while a less important amount flows through the Sobat and the White Nile into the Nile. During this short period, those rivers contribute up to ninety percent of the water of the Nile and most of the sedimentation carried by it, but after the rainy season, dwindle to minor rivers. The flooding as such was foreseeable, although its exact dates and levels could be forecast only on a short-term basis, by transmitting

936-442: The basin irrigation method. Agricultural land was divided into large fields surrounded by dams and dykes and equipped with intake and exit canals. The basins were flooded and then closed for about 45 days to saturate the soil with moisture and allow the silt to deposit. Then the water was discharged to lower fields or back into the Nile. Immediately thereafter, sowing started, and harvesting followed some three or four months later. In

975-409: The dry season thereafter, farming was not possible. Thus, all crops had to fit into this tight scheme of irrigation and timing. In case of a small flood, the upper basins could not be filled with water which could mean food shortages or even famine. If a flood was too large, it would damage villages, dykes and canals. The basin irrigation method did not exact too much of the soils, and their fertility

1014-525: The first fully human-powered transit of the entire Blue Nile and the Nile in the Sudan and Egypt. Their journey of over 5,000 km (3,100 mi) took five months and traveled through Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. They recount that they paddled through civil war conflict zones, regions known for bandits, and encountered multiple hazards and rapids. 12°00′N 037°15′E  /  12.000°N 37.250°E  / 12.000; 37.250 Flooding of

1053-477: The first known people to navigate the Blue Nile in its entirety. Though their expedition included several others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cameras, sharing their story in the film Mystery of the Nile and in a book of the same title. On 29 January 2005, Canadian Les Jickling and his teammate New Zealander Mark Tanner completed

1092-613: The idea of the Aswan High Dam at Aswan in Egypt instead of having to deal with many foreign countries. The required size of the reservoir was calculated using Hurst's figures and mathematical methods . In 1970, with the completion of the Aswan High Dam which was able to store the highest floods, the annual flooding cycle in Egypt came to an end in Lake Nasser . The Nile was also an important part of ancient Egyptian spiritual life. In

1131-440: The month of June, when it reached its lowest level again. Flooding reached Aswan about a week earlier than Cairo, and Luxor five to six days earlier than Cairo. Typical heights of flood were 45 feet (14 metres) at Aswan, 38 feet (12 metres) at Luxor (and Thebes) and 25 feet (7.6 metres) at Cairo. Whilst the earliest Egyptians simply laboured those areas which were inundated by the floods, some 7000 years ago, they started to develop

1170-412: The population diminished accordingly; by 1800, Egypt had a population of some 2.5 million inhabitants. Muhammad Ali Pasha , Khedive of Egypt (r. 1805–1848), attempted to modernize various aspects of Egypt. He endeavoured to extend arable land and achieve additional revenue by introducing cotton cultivation, a crop with a longer growing season and requiring sufficient water at all times. To this end,

1209-523: The rainy season from June to September, when it supplies 80–86% of the water of the Nile proper. The river was a major source of the flooding of the Nile in Egypt that contributed to the fertility of the Nile Valley and the consequent rise of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology . With the completion of the Aswan Dam in 1970, these floods stopped occurring in lower Egypt. During the summer monsoon season,

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1248-516: The rise of the river could be seen at the first of the cataracts of the Nile (at Aswan) as early as the beginning of June, and a steady increase went on until the middle of July, when the increase of water became very great. The Nile continued to rise until the beginning of September, when the level remained stationary for a period of about three weeks, sometimes a little less. In October, it often rose again and reached its highest level. From this period, it began to subside and usually sank steadily until

1287-422: The river along its banks and through its impassable canyon but by following it from the highlands above, travelling some 8,000 km (5,000 mi) by mule in the adjacent country. In the 1950s and 1960s, several kayakers paddled parts of the canyon. In 1968, at the request of Haile Selassie , a team of 60 British and Ethiopian servicemen and scientists made the first full descent of the river from Lake Tana to

1326-502: The river from its source to its confluence has been variously reported between 1,460 and 1,600 kilometres (910 and 990 mi). This uncertainty might result from the fact that the river flows through a series of virtually impenetrable gorges cut in the Ethiopian Highlands to a depth of some 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). According to materials published by the Central Statistical Agency , an Ethiopian government agency,

1365-530: The river's source on 21 April 1618. However, the Portuguese João Bermudes, the self-described "Patriarch of Ethiopia," provided the first description of the Tis Abay River Falls in his memoirs published in 1565, and any number of Europeans who lived in Ethiopia in the late 15th century such as Pêro da Covilhã could have seen the river long before Páez, but not reached its source. The source of

1404-611: Was built by Emperor Fasilides in approximately 1660 with Roman bridge technology brought to Ethiopia by Portuguese soldiers during the battle with the Muslim invaders in 1507. In both 2001 and 2009, Bridges to Prosperity volunteers travelled from the United States to repair the broken bridge across the Blue Nile and later built a new suspension bridge not susceptible to flood. On 28 April 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown, became

1443-498: Was first referred to as the "Grand Canyon" in 1968 by a British team that accomplished the first descent of the river from Lake Tana to the end of the canyon; subsequent river rafting parties called it the "Grand Canyon of the Nile". The Blue Nile Falls ( Amharic : Tis Abay, literally "great smoke"), one of Ethiopia's biggest tourist attractions, is located at the start of the canyon. The river loops across northwest Ethiopia before being fed by numerous tributaries between Lake Tana and

1482-430: Was forced to stop 500 km (300 mi) short of Lake Tana. Robert Cheesman , who records his surprise on arriving in Ethiopia at finding that the upper waters of "one of the most famous of the rivers of the world, and one whose name was well known to the ancients" was in his lifetime "marked on the map by dotted lines", managed to map the upper course of the Blue Nile between 1925 and 1933. He did this not by following

1521-431: Was sustained by the annual silt deposit. Salinisation did not occur, since, in summer, the groundwater level was well below the surface, and any salinity which might have accrued was washed away by the next flood. It is estimated that by this method, in ancient Egypt, some 2 million up to a maximum of 12 million inhabitants could be nourished. By the end of Late Antiquity , the methods and infrastructure slowly decayed, and

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