The River Nile is one of the world’s great rivers. It flows from south of the Equator, northward to the Mediterranean Sea, a journey of over 6,700km. This makes it the world’s longest river. It drains about ten per cent of Africa, which may not seem a lot, but much of Africa is desert, and the Nile, quite remarkably, manages to flow through one of the driest places on Earth.

The river has two main branches. Each flows from different parts of Africa. The White Nile flows from the mountains of Central Africa, in Rwanda and Burundi at a height of over 8,800m. It flows through Lake Victoria and northwards, crossing the Equator as it does so.

The Blue Nile begins in the mountains of Ethiopia near Lake Tana, and Northeast Africa, and flows northwest. The Blue Nile carries far more water than the White Nile. It also brings in most of the silt that the lower Nile carries.

The two main branches of the Nile meet near to the city of Khartoum in Sudan. From there the Nile flows more or less directly north.

Altogether the Nile flows through eleven countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.