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What is the Nile?
        NILE
        (blue, dark), the great river of Egypt and of Africa, and probably the second longest river in the world, its entire length being estimated at 4000 miles. The word "Nile" does not occur in Scripture, but the river is frequently referred to as Sihor or Shihor, which means "black" or "turbid" stream. Josh 13:3; Isa 23:3; Jer 2:18; 1 Chr 13:5. It is also designated simply "the river," Gen 41:1; Ex 1:22; Num 2:3, 1 Chr 6:5, and the "flood of Egypt." Am 8:8; Neh 9:5. In the plural form this word year, rendered "river," frequently refers to the branches and canals of the Nile. This famous river is connected with the earliest history of the Egyptian and the Israelitish nations. Ex 2:3; Ex 7:20-21; Num 11:5; Ps 105:29; Jer 46:7-8; Zech 14:17-18. The Nile is not named in the N.T. Physical Features. - The discovery of the true source of the Nile, and the reason for its annual overflow, are two scientific problems which have been discussed for upward of 2000 years. The course of the stream is now known for about 3300 miles, and with two interruptions - the cataract of Syene (Assouan) and the Upper Cataract - it is claimed by Baedeker's Handbook on Lower Egypt to be navigable throughout nearly the whole of that distance. But as there are many other cataracts, this statement cannot be correct. The principal stream is now known to be the White Nile, while the Blue or Black Nile is of greater importance in contributing to the annual inundation of the lower river. The two streams unite at the town of Khartoom, the capital of Nubia, and from this point to the mouths of the stream at Damietta and Rosetta, upward of 1800 miles, it falls 1240 feet, and attains its greatest width a little below Khartoom and a little above Cairo, at each of which places it is about 1100 yards wide. The source of the White Nile is doubtless Lake Victoria Nyanza, the largest part of which lies south of the equator, and from 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea. The White Nile is so named from the color of the clay with which its waters are stained. The Blue Nile resembles a mountain-torrent, being liable to rise suddenly with the Abyssinian rains and sweep away whatever it encounters in its rapidly-descending course. The source of the Blue Nile is high up in the Abyssinian mountains, from 6000 to 10,000 feet above the sea-level, and in springs which are regarded with superstitious veneration by the neighboring people. The river causes what would be otherwise a barren valley to be one of the most fertile regions in the world. Hence, Herodotus justly calls Egypt "an acquired country and the gift of the Nile." The waters of the Nile now empty into the sea through two streams, known as the Damietta and the Rosetta mouths; ancient writers, however, mention at least seven branches or mouths through which the Nile found its way to the sea. There is the strongest proof that the Nile has filled up the sea for many miles to the north, and that its ancient mouths were several miles farther south. It has been ascertained that within the last half century the mouth of the Nile has advanced northward 4 miles, and the maps of Ptolemy, of the second and third centuries of the Christian era, show that the mouth was then about 40 miles farther south than at present. Hence, at this rate of deposit, the sea-coast, in the earlier history of ancient Egypt, must have been nearly as far south as its ancient capital, Memphis. As rain seldom falls in Egypt proper, the fertility of "the country is entirely dependent upon the annual rise of the Nile. This usually begins in June and continues until near the end of September, the river remaining stationary for two or more weeks, and then attaining its highest level in October, when it begins to subside. "The height of the inundation most favorable for agriculture at the present day has been ascertained by long observation to be 23 cubits 2 inches - i.e., about 41 feet 2 inches, the cubit being 21 inches - while in the time of Herodotus 16 cubits sufficed; and the god of the Nile in the Vatican is therefore represented as surrounded by sixteen children. A single cubit more is apt to cause terrible devastation in the Delta, and elsewhere cover the fields destined for the autumn crop, while a deficiency of 2 cubits causes drought and famine in Upper Egypt," (See Baedeker's Lower Egypt.) The successive years of famine in the days of Joseph were doubtless due to a deficient overflow of the Nile for those years. Formerly this annual inundation turned Egypt into a vast lake, but in later times the water has been distributed by a great network of canals, from which the huge basins of cultivated land into which the canals divide the country, are supplied with water of the depth required to leave a deposit of mud to fertilize the land. The native uses his feet to regulate the flow of water into each of the squares or basins of land, and by a dexterous movement of his toes forms or removes a tiny embankment, as may be required to admit the proper flow of water. Another common mode is to use The Shadoof. the "shadoof," a bucket attached to a long pole hung on a pivot, balanced by a stone or a lump of clay at one end, and having the bucket on the other end. To this day the Nile is lined for hundreds of miles with these shadoofs, worked by men, women, and children, who lift the water out of the river to irrigate their fields. Both these methods are believed to be very ancient, and may be alluded to by Moses in contrasting the fountains and rainfalls in Palestine with the absence of this supply in Egypt: "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs." Deut 11:10-11. A number of festivals were celebrated in connection with the annual rise of the Nile, which appear from the monuments to have been common as early as the fourteenth The Nilometer. century b.c. The height of the Nile was measured by the Nilometer, a square well having in its centre an octagonal column, on which were inscribed the ancient Arabic measures and Cufic inscriptions. This was erected in a.d. 716, and was used to determine the height of the overflow, upon which was based the rate of taxation. The government, however, cheated the poor people by false statements of the overflow, indicated by this measurement. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the river Nile as a god. Two of the ten plagues sent upon Pharaoh and Egypt before the departure of the Israelites were turning the water of the Nile into blood and bringing forth frogs from the river. Ex 7:15-25; Ex 8:3-7. The papyrus reeds - whence paper is designated - the flags, the lotus, and the various colored flowers formerly beautifying the banks of the river have nearly all disappeared, thus fulfilling prophecy. Isa 19:6-7. This river, so intimately associated with the early history of the human race, is a favorite resort for tourists, who can go in steamers as far as the First Cataract, near Assouan (Syene), where were the great quarries which supplied stone for ancient Egyptian monuments, and from Phiae up to Aboo-Simbel and the Second Cataract. The Nile voyage, broken by donkey rides and visits to the pyramids, tombs, and ruins of temples and palaces of the Pharaohs, is one of the greatest enjoyments and best recreations of body and mind.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'nile' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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