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River

Nile

6,650 km from source to mouth · 7 countries.

EgyptUgandaRwandaSudanEthiopiaSouth SudanEgypt, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan and BurundiFlows into Mediterranean Sea1st longest in Egypt

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthKhartoum
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

6,650km

Average flow

2,800m³/s

Basin

3,400,000km²

Drop

1,996m

from 1,993 m to -3 m

Countries

7

The journey

From source to mouth

6,650 km of river and 68 stops on the way: 56 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,993 m-3 m
Lake Victoriaat 1,993 m0 km
Khartoum5,345,000 people2,219 km
Omdurman1,849,659 people2,224 km
Merowe Dam3,219 km
Wadi al-Meliktributary3,426 km
Aswan401,890 people4,630 km
Asyut562,061 people5,312 km
Cairo9,801,536 people5,801 km
Mediterranean Seaat -3 m6,650 km
02,0004,0006,650 km
  1. 0 kmLake Victoriaat 1,993 m
  2. 160 kmBahir Dar350,000 people
  3. 163 kmLake Tana3,059 km²
  4. 196 kmBlue Nile Falls42 m
  5. 1,411 kmRoseires Reservoir225 km²
  6. 1,412 kmAd-Damazin186,051 people
  7. 1,665 kmSinga250,000 people
  8. 1,766 kmSennar Reservoir20 km²
  9. 1,775 kmSennar130,122 people
  10. 1,963 kmWad Medani332,714 people
  11. 2,219 kmKhartoum5,345,000 people
  12. 2,223 kmWhite Niletributary
  13. 2,224 kmOmdurman1,849,659 people
  14. 2,225 kmBlue Niletributary
  15. 2,227 kmKhartoum North1,012,211 people
  16. 2,631 kmAd-Damir103,941 people
  17. 2,643 kmAtbarah Rivertributary
  18. 2,646 kmAtbara112,021 people
  19. 3,219 kmMerowe Dam
  20. 3,426 kmWadi al-Meliktributary
  21. 4,610 kmLake Nasser5,385 km²
  22. 4,610 kmAswan Dam
  23. 4,630 kmAswan401,890 people
  24. 4,630 kmAswān379,774 people
  25. 4,682 kmKom Ombo409,311 people
  26. 4,766 kmEdfu133,772 people
  27. 4,831 kmEsna462,787 people
  28. 4,906 kmLuxor422,407 people
  29. 4,907 kmAncient Thebes with its NecropolisUNESCO World Heritage
  30. 4,987 kmQina252,883 people
  31. 5,137 kmGirga151,256 people
  32. 5,160 kmAl Minshāh91,149 people
  33. 5,180 kmAkhmīm151,430 people
  34. 5,187 kmSohag266,944 people
  35. 5,232 kmŢahţā134,314 people
  36. 5,255 kmŢimā101,130 people
  37. 5,279 kmAbū Tīj105,418 people
  38. 5,310 kmAssiut528,669 people
  39. 5,312 kmAsyut562,061 people
  40. 5,329 kmAbnūb111,785 people
  41. 5,350 kmManfalūţ117,925 people
  42. 5,380 kmAl Qūşīyah99,598 people
  43. 5,395 kmDayrūţ102,570 people
  44. 5,424 kmMallawī212,628 people
  45. 5,488 kmMinya236,043 people
  46. 5,519 kmSamālūţ142,009 people
  47. 5,519 kmSamalut91,475 people
  48. 5,552 kmBanī Mazār115,759 people
  49. 5,553 kmBeni Mazar79,553 people
  50. 5,573 kmMaghāghah118,223 people
  51. 5,573 kmMaghagha75,657 people
  52. 5,601 kmAl Fashn112,999 people
  53. 5,619 kmBibā94,677 people
  54. 5,644 kmBeni Suef294,125 people
  55. 5,646 kmBanī Suwayf273,151 people
  56. 5,658 kmBūsh136,441 people
  57. 5,769 kmḨalwān230,000 people
  58. 5,770 kmHelwan619,293 people
  59. 5,778 kmAl Ḩawāmidīyah155,055 people
  60. 5,796 kmGiza4,367,343 people
  61. 5,798 kmRhoda Island13,206 people
  62. 5,801 kmCairo9,801,536 people
  63. 5,802 kmGezira Island17,365 people
  64. 5,811 kmShubrā al Khaymah1,240,289 people
  65. 5,820 kmAwsīm94,174 people
  66. 5,857 kmAshmūn124,483 people
  67. 6,036 kmDisūq149,291 people
  68. 6,053 kmFuwwah93,392 people
  69. 6,095 kmRosetta301,795 people
  70. 6,650 kmMediterranean Seaat -3 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

Major river in northeastern Africa

At the mouth it carries 2,830 m³/s on average: 1.1 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 1,993 m to -3 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,400,000 km², about the size of IN. 189 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 281% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • CairoLargest city on its banks · 9,801,536 people
  • Cairo International Airport (CAI)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 17 km from the cityCar hire at CAI airport (Cairo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water161 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From November to MarchThe best months to visit

Nile, month by month

Highest water: from August to September

Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to March.

410
19°2 mmJan
300
21°2 mmFeb
300
24°4 mmMar
320
27°7 mmApr
530
29°23 mmMay
1,200
30°44 mmJun
3,100
29°81 mmJul
5,100
29°86 mmAug
5,500
28°48 mmSep
4,600
27°18 mmOct
2,800
24°4 mmNov
1,100
20°2 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 300 m³/s in the lowest month to 5,500 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.

Plan the trip

Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car

Car hire at CAI airport (Cairo)Discover CarsSee 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Nile: the basin in numbers

2,916,802 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 281% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 189millionpeople live in the basin
  • 66/km²people per km²
  • 753maverage altitude of the basin
  • 671mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 25.3°Caverage air temperature
  • 8%protected areas
  • 3.1%covered by lakes
  • 172km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 9% Forest
  • 11% Cropland
  • 36% Pasture
  • 2% Towns and cities

RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.

Along the river

Nile: what you find on the way

  • 27DamsTis Abay, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Spillway Sluice Gates and 24 more
  • 27WeirsFlood discharge and 26 more
  • 7LocksHawis Suhayl, Al-Mahmudiya Canal and 5 more
  • 7WaterfallsBlue Nile Falls, Sixth Cataract and 5 more
  • 2Boat ramps
  • 137Ferry piersBoat Station, Station phrases, Qustul and 134 more
  • 21MarinasBlue Nile Sailing club, Wadi El Seboua, Dakka and 18 more
  • 1Boat rentalsNile Taxi
  • 2River beaches

From OpenStreetMap, within 3.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Nile in our other atlases

What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.

  • 1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
  • 4lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
  • 4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
  • 1island off the mouthIslandyas

Waterfalls (1)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Blue Nile Fallskm 14942m

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (4)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Tanakm 124 · 14 m deep3,059km²
  2. Roseires Reservoirkm 1,075225km²
  3. Sennar Reservoirkm 1,34520km²
  4. Lake Nasserkm 3,511 · 25 m deep5,385km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Beaches (2)

At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya

  1. Bāb Ţallūz22 km away · cove27.6°C
  2. Jūnat al Jurf22 km away · cove27.6°C

Open Coastya ↗

Mountains at the source (4)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Jabal Torya12 km away
  2. Jabal Surkab11 km away
  3. Jabal al Liwebda15 km away
  4. Jibāl el Markhyat14 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

Islands off the mouth (1)

Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas

  1. Nelson's Island28 km away0.0km²

Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Nile: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Nile: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth233 km across

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.

Photos

Nile in pictures

Beautiful nature along Nile River 01
Fiktube · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nile Rowing Boats R01
Marc Ryckaert · CC BY-SA 4.0
A beautiful boat on the Nile, Cairo
Slyronit · CC BY-SA 4.0
A beautiful view of the nile
Menna Saad 206 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (6)

White NileSudanSudan2,620 km880 m³/sjoins at km 1,693Blue NileSudanSudan1,783 km1,500 m³/sjoins at km 1,694Atbarah RiverSudanSudan1,120 km370 m³/sjoins at km 2,013

Also: Wadi al-Melik, Among River, Nyamugamba

In the same basin

Kagera RiverUgandaUganda400 km350 m³/sSobat RiverSouth SudanSouth Sudan306 km410 m³/sBahr el Ghazal RiverSouth SudanSouth Sudan716 km2.0 m³/sTekezé RiverSudanSudan608 km140 m³/sMara RiverTanzaniaTanzania395 km18 m³/sValley of the QueensEgyptEgypt4,302 km2,600 m³/sBaro RiverEthiopiaEthiopia306 km240 m³/sSemliki RiverUgandaUganda230 km240 m³/sRurubu RiverTanzaniaTanzania300 km100 m³/sMareb RiverSudanSudan440 km80 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Wadi El NatrunEgyptEgypt40 km0.0 m³/s113 km awayYarkon RiverIsraelIsrael28 km12 m³/s421 km awayJordan RiverJordanJordan252 km52 m³/s488 km awayKouris RiverCyprusCyprus38 km1.8 m³/s414 km awayKishon RiverIsraelIsrael70 km7.6 m³/s463 km awayZarqa RiverJordanJordan65 km6.5 m³/s493 km awayWadi MujibJordanJordan72 km3.8 m³/s494 km awayWadi AujaPalestinePalestine208 km47 m³/s490 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q3392) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesCascadyas, Lakeyas, Coastya, Peakyas, Islandyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit