The Nile IS Just a River in Egypt

So you were lying? That was lying? I got you. Oh wait, before we get into this, can we give a quick Kiva shout out? We totally should. Thanks to Glenn for emailing us to be like, hey, busy movie star guys. We we need you to pay attention to Glenn and the Glen and Sonia's Yes, Hey guys, So Chuck, we have reached the seven hundred thousand dollar mark in loans from our stuff. You should know. Kiva to k i v a dot org slash team slash stuff you

should know. It's a It's a micro lending organization where you loan in increments of five bucks to um people who use it to basically keep their businesses going. Start a new business by inventory whatever and it's basically um global piece through capitalism. It's Nito torpedo and we support it. And not only that, not only did we hit the seven hundred thousand dollar mark, um, we just celebrated our second anniversary. We did in like two years. That is nuts.

So we're on track. From Glenna's the the uber math genius of this heading this up, I think he says we're on track to hit our three quarters of a middle goal in like mid November, and are the original goal was to hit it by the end of the year. So yeah, the juggernaut that is Team s y S k On Kiva rolls on. So can you tell that to you guys? Eight hundred thousand everybody a million bucks? I can't even wt my mind around that. Do you remember how all this started? Yeah, that's a simple a

simple podcast. So a way to go. Everybody on our KEYVA team and we're not exclusive. Our Kiva team is very open and friendly. Again, if you want a good joint, it's k I v A dot org slash team slash stuff you should know right all right back to denial, Okay, so denial, Chuck, Yes, have you ever heard of an ancient man eating crocodile named Gustav. Yeah. Man, I watched the video on him, did you. He is enormous and scary.

He's pretty creepy looking. So for those of you who aren't in the know, like Chuck, let me tell you a little bit about Gustaf. He's what twenty ft long, Chuck six? Okay, he weighs a ton, he does way ton, which is what more than two thousand pounds these days, isn't it? It's a ton? Uh. And he's about sixty years old, they think, which is pretty substantial because wild crocodiles, he's a now crocodile. Wild crocodiles lived too, about forty five.

I think it's the seventy now. Actually, yeah, that's right, because he was about sixteen two four. So yeah, he's pushing seventy and he is very old. And he also has a real taste for humans. Yeah, I think some. I think a lot of that is true. I think there's a lot of legend built up to though. Well. They there's this guy, this hunter, um of him. His last name is Fate. What's his first name, Chuck? No,

his his first name is Um Patrese Faye. Yeah, he was the documentary that I watched when he tried to catch him. He seems to be something of a controversial figure and he's a bit of a captain ahab and Gustaf is his quick quake, yes at least um and uh. Anyway, that the point is, I would say I think about

three hundred people are attributed to dying to Gustav. Yeah, and one some legend has it that he sometimes won't even eat you, he'll just kill you, which makes me think, you know, that's probably not true, right, he kills for sport or something exactly. So goose Off has been on the loosen Burundi for a long time, and he is a now crocodile and he's in Burundi because the Nile actually flows partially through Burundi, which is the whole reason I brought up Goosetad in the first place. It's a

great way to start. It was, Okay, you know much about the Nile, A little bit. I know a thing or two. It is just a river in Egypt, but it's not just in Egypt. So if you have a problem with the title stuff emailing, because we know what we're talking about. It's in technically, if you want to know, it's in Uganda, Sudan, Egypt, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and the aforementioned Burundi. Yes, and throughout all those countries. Um. But now it gets fairly wide. I think it's up

to tin kilometers wide at its widest point. Yes, that's good to know. But ten kilometers that's that's a substantial width for a river, right. Um, it's over five miles wide, so um, and which is kind of wide. But at the same time, for flowing through ten countries, it's still fairly narrow compared to its length. Yet about three hundred and seventy million people depend on the Nile to survive and have for a long time, not that many people,

a very long time as a matter of fact. Um. In Ethiopia, where one of the Nile's headwaters are the the it's considered the cradle of the Cush people, which are which is the black race, I guess, um, and possibly the human race is the cradle of the human race. But don't tell the Arian brotherhood because they will be mad. Yeah, get mad about everything. Yeah, they do. Josh, to tell us some more about the Nils, like there's some amazing facts. It is a river, but it's an amazing river, and

it's not even the longest river, is it. Now? The Amazon generally is quoted as a little bit longer by I think they said the most recent expedition. Uh, they found out and they used advanced mapping equipment, which is advanced. That the Niles about four hundred I'm sorry, four thousand, one seventy five miles long, nineteen kilometers and the Amazon clock sit and we're gonna do an Amazon show too at so it's about sixty five miles longer. And that's I think that the New Nile, as we'll call it,

includes the new headwaters south of Lake Victoria. Is that what they determined because he used to say it was originated in Lake Victoria? Yeah? There, Now it's south a little bit right. There was a guy that was controversial. Um when when the guy came up? But there was a guy named John Hanning speck or speak, and he was an English explorer who lived to eighteen sixty four. Before his death, he went on an expedition to Africa

and went off by himself. He got his co expedition leader got injured, so he went off by himself and found I don't think it was good father, um. And he found Lake Victoria and said, well, this is guy to be the Nile and lake must be the headwaters. And there was this big public debate over whether it was real or not, and um between the guy who was injured and not on the expedition and Speak, and so finally Speak was like playing, you know what, let's go back. So we went back and they found the

place where the Nile exits Lake Victoria. So Lake Victoria has traditionally been the source of the Nile, but they found that actually, no, there's some headwaters somewhere in some forests in Rwanda. And you say that it's south of Lake Victoria, which is crazy, chuck, because that means that the Nile flows south to north. Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, I thought that was so strange because I thought south meant lower and it's just not

the case. In Africa. The low Land, I'm sorry, the highland is south, and so it just flows towards the equator with gravity like it should towards the equator. Never had of cavity, not just not one. So um, yeah, the the that is kind of big news though, that the head water is the source of the nile. Um it has changed that. It's I like how it's somewhere deep in a forest in Rwanda. That's pretty cool. That's

fairly mysterious. So it still has a mysterious origin. It's always had this kind of mysterious dark Africa vibe to it. The nile has. So, Josh, let's talk about the tributaries. If you're gonna talk about the nile, you got to talk about the fact that there's the White Nile and there's the Blue Nile. The white is the the newest source south of Lake Victoria. Is is the White Nile easiest to navigate. It's the longer section but actually has

less water feeds less water. So we're gonna talk about how the nile like raises and lowers in a little bit. But it's the white Nile that's responsible for that. Yeah, And it's Uh. It's lightish gray in color for the sediment, which is why they called the white Nile. The Blue Nile is very sparkly blue in its origins and the Ethiopian mountains, and UH provides about two thirds of the water to the river. And then it turns darker as

it goes in the Sudan, things get dark. The Blue Nile, yeah Um, and the there's also another tributary that's that's the two largest tributaries, the Blue Nile in the White. Now. I also found out that after the nile exits a lake like it comes out of Lake Victoria. That's called the Victoria Nile. Then it gets the Lake Albert, Victoria's lover boy, and then after it exits that it's the Albert Nile. So that it's named kind of based on

where it isn't any given part in time. But the other the third major tributary that at Bara River Um, which comes out of the eastern portion of Sudan, is actually Um. They think it's the original source of the nile thirty and now is about thirty million years old from the Tertiary period. But they think that that was the original source, and other rivers started coming out and

joining together and now it forms the huge, massive nile. Well, it goes to a lot of twists and turns on the way, and we'll talk about a couple those, but let's go ahead and just tell you the ending. Now spoiler alert, it splits again in Egypt into the Damietta, which is on the east side or is that on the west. Damia is on the west the east, Damiette is on the east, Rosetta is on the west. I had it right to begin with. I had it right one of those times and that uh, and then you

know it splits in the two main things. But it's really a fan of many, many little fingers that all spill out into the Mediterraneans. But did you notice what those two things were called, the Damietta and the Rosetta. They were called distributaries, right, You have tributaries coming in, distributaries distribute. Yeah, that's where the word distribute comes from. That was what's sad is. I was like, wow, there's the fact of the puk. That was it. Yeah, I

like all the canal stuff do Yeah. Well, I mean it's not the fact, but I just thought that was the coolest stuff. How they made it work for them. Yeah. So as the niles flowing from south to north, it's pretty, it's pretty. I mean it's wide, it flows, but I mean like it's not You're not gonna get thrown out of a kayak on it until you get to as one. Right, Once you get to as One. There's six cataracts after that between as One and the Nile Delta. And these

cataracts are basically rapids. I wonder how like really really navigable the boat, Like, okay, you gotta get out and put your boat on a trailer and drive around and then get back in. What do you call that unnavigable? Navigable word for that when you have to to pull your canoe out and do some walking besides sucks? Yeah, bummer, I'm just Monday morning, Friday afternoon. I would have that word at my ready. I'm sure that, um, people have

hit these rapids before. But I mean you're talking not just this isn't you know, like a normal river creek. This is the Nile hitting rapids. So there's six of those and then you get to um the delta and then calms down again. Um, it's the longest kiss in history. That's what they call it the Arab poets. Isn't it nice? That is nice? Like when they meet that's the kiss

huh and at Khartoum. Yeah, that is very nice. I thought that was very poetic, which is I guess why poets wrote it, right, Okay, So um, you want to hear a little more, a few more stats. I actually have a couple of stats. Let's hear it, just a couple more things. If you live on the Nile and you're a member of a certain ethnic group, a few ethnic groups, especially in Sudan, you're described as nihilotic, like Caucasian,

you're nihilotic. Um. If you were to measure the amount of water that passes down the Nile every day at its peak, you would come up with seventy nine billion, two d fifty one million, six hundred fifteen thousand, three hundred seventy two US gallons, which is three hundred million cubic meters of water every day. And if you wanted to get to the root of the name of the Nile, Nelios is Greek for are you ready for this river valley? It's a disappointed. It was a little disappointed. I thought

so too. Sometimes it just makes too much sense. So, um, there's a certain culture of people that grew up along the Nile. We mentioned the Kush people from Ethiopia. Um, But they get a lot less press than their neighbors to the to the west, the ancient Egyptians. Yes, this is after the Great Bend north of the Great Bend. We left out the Great Bend. Well, the Great Bend is interesting because it literally runs east to west for

a little while, then bends back and runs the other way. Yeah, it's going just due north and then it cuts It's pretty switch back. You would call that if you were a hiker. Yeah. And they they found out finally, like this is perplexed people who um navigated the river and mapped it and they're like, what the what is this? Stinds this because it actually does it in one of the driest points of Earth on Earth. Um, the whole area around it is dry. To that's worth pointing out

is it's in the middle of some serious, serious sand. Well, it depends on what part you're at. It goes through a lot of different clients, but when it hits the Great Band, it's like in the middle of the Sahara Desert and it should just keep going north, but it didn't. So they found in I think through um through satellite photos, they found that there's this ancient river bed that it

did used to go straight and something happened. They they estimate between ten thousand and one million years ago something happened. Uh and now it takes this bend. No one knows what that. It just ain't the same sense then though. Wow. Interesting. I wonder if it was superstitious in nature, if like some person stood and said halt to the Nile and it went around him. I don't think so. I think it was the other way around. I think the Nile

just is kind of like, we're your boss. So I mentioned that a lot of the northern part, especially in Egypt, is in the middle of serious sand, and that sand is what protected the Nile in the Nile River basin and the people there because it was you know, you couldn't just like walk over there and attack them. You were lucky to make it through the desert to get to the Nile. It served as a natural protection plan. That's I didn't realize that. Yeah. Um, so you you

know about ancient Egypt. Of course there were several kingdoms, each of which collapsed. UM. Very advanced people. So they were one of the cool things. We we talked about the Nile rising and falling every year. UM. The blue Niles steady, slow and steady coming out of the Ethiopian highlands. UM.

And it's the white now coming out of Rwanda. And through Lake Victoria, UM and through Sudan UH that that is subject to fluctuations because there's heavy rainfall, and Rwanda there's also I saw a heavy rain in the Ethiopian highlands too, though there is but for some reason, the Nile stays steady. The Blue Nile coming out of Ethiopia stays steady. And snow melting too was another big reason.

So I think what it is Maybe Africa rains on one during one part of the year, and then the snowmel happens in another, and it equals basically just an equal volume coming out. So in UH on the White Nile it's subject to a wild fluctuation and UM it drops down, it raises up to twenty feet at its highest point. And the ancient Egyptians, UM, we're pretty smart about capturing this stuff. They could capture the water and canals and basins so much so that they would have

all the water they needed for next year's crops. All let me say that again, they could capture all the water they needed for next year's crops through the nile. That's right, Uh. Specifically, John, the river is at its lowest in May, it's at its highest in September. So between May and September. Uh, there's something called the rise, which is the uh inundation, and then there's the fall, which is the relinquishment. Happens around October's when it starts

to fall. And during that that time where it rises so much, like you said, they would capture this water. It would flood the sand there and when it receded, it would leave this mud. This's awesome rich fertile silt. They would dry that out for about a week and then they would start a plant. That's why the um the nile delta is so lush. It's that annual you know, bringing of the silt. That's dude. This that changed the

history of the world and definitely Africa. And apparently the silt is between fifty and hundred feet deep and it's just this black, rich, nutrient rich soil that you could take rocks in. Yeah. Um yeah, but still I know what you meant, um and uh yeah, like you said, it changed the history of the world. And um there was problematic is it was a gift as well as a curse because it would not only um bring the silt,

sometimes it would bring way too much water. It would ruin it would come in at the wrong time and they couldn't harvest fast enough. But the Nile giveth, it taketh away, right exactly, So to prevent the flooding and to allow for more settlement because you know, you need to pack people in there. As a matter of fact, the Nile is one of the most densely populated areas

on Earth, right. Yeah, there's a stat here somewhere. I think it's like thirty eight people per square mile, Yeah, which is um, Yes, that's dense, my friend, is very dense. And it was always that dense or not that dense, but it's always been very dense with people because that was the life, the life blood, as they say. So when you have a bunch of people, um, you need to settle them where you can. And you can't just let the Nile flood everybody every year and then rebuild.

So what they did is they started building a system of dams and uh, they started controlling them now a little more so they can keep the flooding in check. They've got plenty of water for irrigation, but they're losing out on the sediment. Yeah, reduced the fertility some. So they started using fertilizer. They kind of rolled with the punches over the years from what I gathered as far as you know, building the dams, and they realized that saved the land from being flooded too much. But it

also they said, we get start using fertilizer now. They did. It was part of the green Revolution, I think. So it's kind of like, yeah, we've got all this fertilizer, but now we're screwing up the land two different ways. It's basically it's just another example of humans controlling nature

and shooting themselves in the foot, you know. Yeah. But the the good thing, the good news is though that through their control and through this silt in the flooding, it allowed for a lot of kind of crops that you wouldn't think you would be able to grow out there, like wheat and barley. Um. I think these days, what do they grow? Uh, cotton even sorghum, well, Egyptian cotton the best. It's very very solid. What kind of threadcount you go with these days? Higher the better? You know.

What I just recently learned is higher actually means heavier too. So if you go out and get like a one thousand thread count sheet, you might not be getting what you're looking for because it might feel more a blanket. Right. It depends on what what thread, what type of fabric they're using. Yeah, exactly. Um, it's on the weave, it is. And also you have to look out for you you definitely get what you pay for if you find like

six hundred thread count sheets for like internet. The reason why, Um, it is six hundred thread count, but they're counting each of the three strands of thread. So with rather than a single thread counting, you know, six hundred times, it's one thread divided by into the three strands that make up that single thread thread counts. Because I've seen those on the internet, you know, six undred thread count front and then you'd like pull it up over you and

you get like a rash. You might as well sleep in a potato sack or something. You get the Nile rash. Yeah. So, um, Chuck, we talked about damns. I did a little extra research. It turns out that the Nile connects nine countries, and it connects them geo politically as well as just geologically geographically. Um and I apparently Egypt and Sudan like to make agreements over water use for the Nile. And this has

been going on for a really long time. Used to be Egypt and Ethiopia, and Egypt would occasionally, um accused Ethiopia of you know, controlling the Nile and keeping the water to themselves, which they had no no way of doing. And then every once in a while, Ethiopia would threat and to do that, and Egy would be like, okay, alright, alright, let's talk to keep all the water right. Um. So uh, then it changed between EAGYPT and Sudan, and that's those

are still two of the biggest players now. So Egypt has a really long history of blocking projects that would kind of equitably distribute the Nile waters. And you remember in Ethiopia had this horrible famine, um do you remember, um? But the Nile was just fine. They just hadn't figured out or they weren't using it to eargate properly, and the world didn't really care that much at first. It took a little while to remember it took it took a while. It was a big deal before I found

out about it. In other words, yes, exactly, I have a little factor. The show for me is to measure the the the recession and the rising of the river. They used a staircase. They built a staircase down into the river and literally just marked it. It It was called a nilometer and they just mark to what stair it was on from time to time. Pretty basic. That is basic. But because you can't have a big pole, you know,

you can't stick a big pole down. How old are those stairs, I don't know if there's I don't think they're still around. Oh that was into Egypt, the old Kingdom. Now they just measure it with advanced equipment. So nor advanced mapping equiping, danced mapping equipment. So what else? Do you want to talk some more about some animals? Uh? Sure that the nile is is well known to house crocodiles. The nile crocodile is a fish eater for the most part,

goats or chickens and whatever happens to be lurking nearby. Yeah, goats, I did know. Fish I didn't think of. But they do attack humans. They say roughly two d human deaths per year thanks to the crocodile. And goostaf that we mentioned earlier is he's large for a nile crocodile, but it's not like he's some freak of nature. I mean, there's plenty of crocodiles that get to be twenty feet in length. Well, the saltwater crocodiles tend to grow larger,

so he's just big for the area. Which and he's old as the hills, so that that gave him the spooky legend. He's as old as a seventy year old hill. Yeah, sixty seven year old, best neighborhood kids. Uh. And then hippopotamus. They don't the hippopotamus doesn't live in the Nile anymore. And I didn't find why they're not natives. They don't live in Egypt. Oh, they live on the Nile, but they Yeah, they get around Sudan more. Now Egypt gets all the press, but they used to be around Egypt.

I'm not sure exactly why they left. Well, probably because the crocodiles, although the crocodiles everywhere, but they would eat hippos even though they're not supposed to. And the hippos were pretty fearsome in their own right. Yeah, they like to mess up crops, run over people. I mean, we think of them as very lovable, hungry, hungry hippos um, but yeah, you don't really want to get too close

to him, because well, it's like an elephant. An elephant is not going to like necessarily mean to kill you. If it means to kill you, you're dead, sure, but it can still kill you just by you being in its way, right, So you just don't you don't want to get too close to the hippotami. Okay, what about insects, Josh, who cares the c D c uh. Apparently they've gotten the malaria pretty well in check there so that you

don't even have to get vaccinated any longer. If you travel to that area, going to the city, if you're if you're on an expedition on the Nile, you're probably gonna need to get the valaria. Now. Even if they

didn't recommend it, I would get it. But they do recommend that, you know, if you're traveling there, to take the standard anti diarrhea stuff, ida and tablets, water purification, all the good stuff that you're gonna need to stay alive and to keep from pooping your skeleton out like that guy I said, you said that, one of the listeners, Remember, Oh, yeah, yeah,

that's right. What else, Josh? The Nile today still booming, and you know, that the the way they farm there today is still really similar to the way they did it back in the day. Like I saw video of from last week of you know, the oxen pulling the stuff right on the banks of the Nile. Yeah, it's pretty cool. That is cool. Um. The Arab spring that led to the revolt in Egypt. Um, you know, Egypt and Sudan or the two big players with water now.

Um to get around that, a bunch of other countries, some of the smaller countries started the Nile Basin Initiative, which is basically like trying to figure out how to do it on their own without depending on Egypt. And Egypt kept going around and blocking their bonds. Yeah, however they could because you need money for it. These are countries that you know, have just enough infrastructure to keep

their people going. So a new project that's going to really develop the country, they need some money for it. So Egypt would go to the World Bank and be like, you don't, you don't want to do that. So now now that there's like a leadership vacuum in Egypt, people are hopeful and worried because Egypt still has you know, commitments to water agreement and Um, it's kind of up in the air at this point, like how it's gonna go. Are they gonna get stintier, are they gonna get better?

Who knows? Interesting? I got one more step for you. You talked about how densely populated it is, despite the fact that the Nile River basin only makes up five of Egypt's land mass. Of the population lives along the Nile in Egypt. It's nuts, it is, but necessary. Yeah. And the Nile River Delta itself, not just the Nile, but the Delta is so significant that the ancient Egyptians worshiped the Delta as a god copy happy h a p I who is represented by a frog. Really yeah,

happy than delta frog. Yeah. Uh. And despite the fact that they do grow things like cotton and wheat and sugar cane there and citrus fruits, there's still a lot of poor people doing the farming. It hasn't to like this abundance of riches as farmers. No, it's pretty sad. I don't know what the problem is either, I don't know. I'm not sure. I mean, they are they exporting tons of this stuff or is it mainly for their use? I wonder I don't know. Jerry's laughing at it. They're

also getting into hydro electric power, which that could change things. Well, that's one damn. Yeah, I think it's been producing powerful a while it opened in nineteen seventy while they're getting more and more into it these days. Two like more hydro electric power and more damns. It's huge. So it's like three sixty four ft tall above the river and it's twelve thousand feet wide. That's an enormous damn. That is big. Took eleven years to build. Really, Yeah, how

does that compare to the Hoover damn? And in generation of power? I wonder I keep asking for stats. We don't. I hate my name? Man, you got anything else? No? I wish I did, but I don't. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, and this one we're going to chalk up to. If you want to know the entire world, we gotta we have to explain the Nile eventually. So that's what we did. We're gonna kill the Amazon or not little not really

kill it. Nobody can. We're gonna shut it off. No, I should be asking you that, Chuck, You got anything else? Uh don't? Okay, Well, if you want to learn more about the Nile. You can type in Nile and I l e in the search part at how stuff Works dot com, which means it's time for listener mail. Josh, you know that we read our email emails occasionally from our younger listeners. Yes, we like kids, and we like them learning stuff and we like to be uh role

models as far as our show goes the kids. That's a good good This comes from a listener from Wiscon. I'm sorry, Minnesota, Okay, you can't say it like that. I am Eli of Lyndstrom, Minnesota. It's a small town located on the nose of Wisconsin, which is why I send that. I'm fourteen years old and I've been listening to your podcast for about six months. I really like it a lot. It is straight to the point, yet it isn't so facty you got that right, unlike Radio Lab.

But I really enjoy your sense of personality. You add you guys don't sound like robots. I was having an anger attack when I heard the Underground Railroad podcast That lady wouldn't a real genius if it hit her in the ear. Drums, harsh words. Your topics include a variety of pop culture, science, psychology, and some downright obscure ones. I listened to you on the lawnmower along with wait waite, don't tell me? And how to do everything I haven't

heard of. That one sounds suspiciously like our own like Catholic stuff. You should know exactly. One of the people who turned me onto your podcast is my scout Master, Dana. He and I have a very have very heated arguments and discussions about certain topics on our way to and from boy Scout camp. Me being the senior patrol leader, I need to have a certain connection with the scout Master in order for things to run smoothly. I appreciate what you guys are doing for me, and I hope

that you right back. I would get all warm and fuzzy if you went as far as to read this on the air and Dana would not believe it. I hope you have a wonderful fault. Sincerely, Eli from Minnesota. Thanks a lot, Eli, and Dana take that. Yeah, I think Eli just one up to Dana from that. Yeah. I's had s'mores the other day. You mean, and I are into smores right now? You build a fire? How do you do it? Uh? In the Hey, dude, I don't. I don't have like a backyard to have a fire

in and set it on fire on fire. Okay, Well, if you have a good s'more story, or how about this, if you have a good autumn treat recipe, we're in the we're in the market. Uh, we want it. Okay, A good punkin pie perhaps something like that, something that I haven't heard of. Good, um, good autumn cocktail recipe is always appreciated as well. I had a nice autumn beer the other night the doctors had punkin. Yeah, you've been talking about that ever since too. I just had

it two nights ago. What are you talking about? No, you didn't, because this is like the third time you've mentioned added two nights ago. You're thinking of your other friend, Chuck. No, I think well then Chad had one. Okay, Okay. So if you have a good recipe of some sort for an autumn treat, we want to hear it. You can

tweet it to us, but it better be short. That's s Y s K Podcast is our Twitter Twitter handle on Facebook where at Facebook dot com slash stuff you should Know and and you can totally email us totally at stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand and twelve cameras. It's ready, are you