The River

Our attention during our voyage has been chiefly directed to the temples and other remains of ancient Egypt. The wonderful river on which we have been journeying has also interested us. We have come to Egypt to see its marvels and there is nothing more strange and interesting than its river. I am always attracted toward rivers, and know of no pleasanter way to travel or to see the country than from a river steamer. A trip on the Rhine, the Elbe, the Danube, or the Volga will give one the best idea of their respective countries. Only a portion of the former is included in the usual tour. The others, although navigated by excellent steamers, are almost unknown to the tourist.

The Nile is the oldest river in the world in the sense of being known to the human race. At the very dawn of history we find the river with its yearly rise and fall just as we know it to-day. Ages before the coming of the Egyptians to Egypt it had been making the country for them. For Egypt is truly “the gift of the Nile,” as Herodotus puts it. And if the Nile were to cease, Egypt would die surely and quickly.

The ancient Egyptians apparently knew nothing about the sources of the river or the causes for its yearly rise, which meant so much to them. They sailed up it past the second and third cataracts and found the same river which they knew at Memphis and Thebes. To them it came from the land of heat, inhabited by barbarian negroes. They recognized fully the importance of the overflow of the river to their country, and in very early times registered its height at Semneh and at Aswan.

If the ancient Egyptians were ignorant of the sources of the river and the causes of the important phenomena, the Romans and Arabs were no more enlightened. Even down to very recent times the question of the source of the Nile was one of the great unsolved geographical problems. After centuries of surmises, sometimes with a little truth at the bottom of them, Lieutenant John Speke, in 1858, discovered Lake Victoria Nyanza. Convinced though he was that it was the source of the Nile, he could not be sure of it until five years later, when he found the outlet of the river and followed it northward. Now the course of the river is well known, and it may even be said to be under English rule for its entire length.

Lake Victoria Nyanza is the source of the Nile. In order to give the river the greatest possible length and to have it include the entire basin drained by it, geographers consider the Kagera as its first stage. This river flows into the lake from the southwest and has a length of three hundred and sixty miles. From Lake Victoria to Lake Albert the stream is known as the Victoria Nile. Thence to the Sobat it is called the Albert Nile. On this section it receives water from numerous tributaries, especially from the southwest. From the Sobat to Khartum its name is the White Nile. At Khartum, the Blue Nile, coming from the mountains of Abyssinia, joins the White Nile, and thenceforth the combined stream is called simply the Nile. The White Nile is the longer stream, but the Blue Nile has the larger volume of water and also brings the greater deposit of the Nile mud which is so prized in Egypt. Below Khartum the Atbara is the only tributary of the Nile. It is a very erratic stream, dry for eight months and a torrent for the rest of the year.

The total length of the main river, from the sources of the Kagera to the sea, is calculated at 6,350 kilometers, or 3,923 miles, thus making it one of the longest rivers in the world.

Its most prominent and interesting feature is the annual inundation. The ancients knew not the cause and ascribed it to the gods. In the country of the great lakes the rainy season lasts from February to November, with maximum periods in April and October. Below the lakes the rain falls from April to October with maximum in August. In Abyssinia, at the headwaters of the Blue Nile, and the Atbara, the heavy rains also come in August. These rains are the cause of the rise of the river. It is calculated that in time of flood it requires fifty days for the water of the White Nile to travel from the lakes to the sea, and twenty-five days for the Blue Nile. Therefore the full effect of the rise in all these streams reaches Egypt early in October.

Let us look at the yearly story of the river in Egypt. About the middle of June it begins to rise. The tradition is that on the night of June 17th a miraculous drop falls in the river which causes it to rise. This is called the “leilat en-nuqta,” or night of the drop, and used to be celebrated as a great festival. The holiday is still kept up but is constantly losing in interest. During July the river rapidly increases. Its height on the Roda gauge used to be announced daily by criers; now the daily papers spread the news.

Another interesting ceremony and festival which has lately passed away was the cutting of the dam of the canal which carried the water through Cairo. This occurred when the river had reached the mark of sixteen cubits on the Roda Nilometer. It was a very interesting and typical Cairene festival. The canal has now been filled up and serves as the highway for the new electric trams.

The river rises still more rapidly in August. It usually reaches its maximum early in October. During that month it remains about stationary and begins to fall in November. During the tourist season, from January to April, it is continually falling, reaching its lowest level in the spring.

Up to very recently the rise and fail were entirely natural and beyond the control of man. Vast works have now been completed or planned which will enable the regulation of the stream and permit the storage of much of the water which has heretofore gone to waste in the Mediterranean. So it is losing the character of a river and becoming merely a great canal.

The irrigation is now measured by the gauge at Aswan. A maximum rise of less than six and a half meters means an insufficient flood. About eight meters makes a very satisfactory flood, while if it gets above eight and three-quarters there is too much water and great damage results. As the level of the river is usually below that of the land, the real work of irrigation consists in raising the water to such a height that it will flow to the desired fields.

The shaduf is the common and time-honored device for lifting the water. The simplest form consists of two posts about five feet apart with a cross-piece connecting them. On the latter is poised a long pole weighted at one end and with a bucket for the water at the other. The operator pulls the bucket down to the stream and fills it. Then the counterpoise lifts it and it is emptied. A simple shaduf is managed by one man. There are usually two placed side by side. A shaduf will raise the water five or six feet, and if it has to be lifted to a greater height the necessary shadufs are erected, each raising to the one above. Sometimes a series of four or five is required. The shaduf-workers are the lowest and poorest-paid fellahin, earning three to five piasters per day, and the work is hard. It is really a human machine, and all parts of it must work uniformly.

The sakiyeh is another device for hoisting water. It consists of an endless chain of earthen jars. These are connected with a toothed upright wheel which is turned by a horizontal wheel. The power is usually furnished by a bullock, but a mule, donkey, or even a camel may be seen turning the sakiyeh. Sometimes we find an incongruous pair, such as a camel and a donkey. Harmony is not considered by the native workman; he thinks only of getting the water for his fields and has to use whatever force is at his disposal. A small boy rides on a peculiar seat and drives. He contributes to the picturesqueness of the scene and if the visitor comes within reach is quite sure to beg for bakshish.

There is a general impression that the Nile is not a scenic river; even that it may be dull and monotonous. It is true that much of the traveler’s interest is derived directly and indirectly from people who dwell on its banks, The fellahin at work in the fields, the workers at the shaduf and sakiyeh, the village girls at the river bank filling their water-jars, helping each other to place them on their heads and marching off in Indian file-all these pictures make scenery and can be legitimately so regarded. Such pictures make up the album of the life of Egypt and he who has not seen them must not think he has seen the country. And they cannot be seen except from the river steamer; even those who make the short river trip cannot see them in all their variety.

And the river is not devoid of natural scenery. It is not, perhaps, such a river as the Rhine; yet it has its mountains on both sides, in some places near the bank, even rising right up from the river, as the Gebel Abulfeda, at other places retreating toward the horizon and leaving the rich, green pasture-land or the yellow fields of grain to fill the foreground. All this can be seen from the deck of the steamer as it winds slowly up the river or from any slight elevation on shore. Certain parts of the river, such as Luxor and Aswan, are especially beautiful. At the former place the hills fall back from the shores on both sides and are thereby lowered and softened. Seen in the glow of an Egyptian sunset the picture is anything but tame. The same may be said of Aswan and indeed of many other places. The course of the Nile through Nubia is full of scenery. Philae and its surroundings exhibit some of the most beautiful views in the world. Then comes the gorge of Kalabsheh, a rocky defile with changing scenes every moment. Korosko and its mountains give us another type-rugged barrenness. In fact, the whole course of the Nile in Nubia teems with scenery.

I must not forget to mention the date palm, the tree of Egypt. During the first part of the trip from Cairo we see everywhere the tall, slender trunks with their lofty, bushy crowns. In spring, clusters of blossoms hang under the long leaves and slowly change into bunches of yellow dates which are gathered in the fall. Farther up, above Baliana, the dum palm, shorter, and with its graceful branches, becomes the prominent tree, the change being so gradual that we hardly notice it. The palm is not the only tree, for we find acacia, the shittim, the tree from which the Ark of the Covenant was made, and in the villages occasional gardens with lemons, oranges, and figs.

The picture of the life on the river would not be complete without a word about the river boats, called felukas or markib. They are all about the same size and all are rigged alike. Their pointed lateen sails are always in sight. Sometimes several of them form an especially interesting group for the artist with the camera or for the traveler who delights in the quiet contemplation of such views.

Is it monotonous? I have heard people who had not been on the river say that they thought it would be monotonous. I myself have made six complete trips by steamer all the way and am eagerly looking forward to the seventh. I pity the tourist who cannot enjoy the life of the river and is always studying how he can most rapidly cover the ground and return to his native land. Probably he does not appreciate the beauty of that country, but lives his life there without a thought of the outer world except as regards the weather.

On the tourist portion of the river, from Cairo to the second cataract, there is constant and varied scenery. The very fact that some parts of it are less striking than others prevents it from being monotonous. For there is a monotony of grandeur as well as of the commonplace; just as the latter can be made interesting, so the former can and does lose its beauty when it becomes all-pervading. So a scene which in Switzerland is not considered worthy of notice would be made much of in a less-favored region.

I cannot speak of the river above the second cataract from my own observation. From Wady Haifa to Kharturn the scenery is similar to that in Egypt and Nubia. Nowhere is the fertile strip very wide and sometimes it is entirely absent even on both banks. There are numerous islands and occasional series of rapids. Black rocks, worn and polished by the water, alternate with stretches of river and sand. The population is scanty and less prosperous than in Egypt. The variety of scenery probably equals that of the lower river, perhaps surpasses it.

Above Khartum the Blue Nile flows through a flat and monotonous country until it reaches the borders of Abyssinia. The White Nile flows for many miles through a level region with luxuriant vegetation. In fact, it is sometimes choked by the vegetable growth which becomes matted and almost solid. This is called the sudd, and occasionally blocks the river so as to entirely interfere with its flow and make it necessary to cut through it with steamers. In this part of its course the river forms or flows through some large lakes, such as Lake No. Above these lakes the country again becomes hilly, with almost a temperate vegetation. In its passage out of the great lake there are beautiful waterfalls, such as the Murchison Falls and the Ripon Falls.

A short generation ago few white men had seen this country, and they had traveled for many months, sometimes enduring great hardships, to reach it. Now it is well known and entirely accessible. Less than a generation hence it will take its place among the pleasure and even health-resorts of the world, connected by steamers and railroads with the Sudan and Egypt on the north, the Indian Ocean on the east, the Cape Colonies on the south, and probably also with the Congo Free State and its ports on the Atlantic.

From To-Day on the Nile
by H.W. Dunning, 1905.