The search for the source of the Nile.
The Nile River has always been the most famous and the less comprised one of Africa. The Egyptian civilization had bloomed at its shore, but the river itself was always a mystery to them. Where was its source? And why did it overflow every year? According to the legend, there was a mountain range called “The Mountains of the moon” that fed the Nile with water. Actually, the Nile is divided in two branches, the western one, the White Nile, was a mystery. In the middle of the nineteenth century, some explorers followed the White Nile (from north to south) through a great swamp, called As-Sudd (barrier). A little bit southern, some missioners heard rumors about an inner see that flowed into the White Nile.
These stories fascinated the explorers Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke. Together they traveled to the interior from Zanzibar to study the Lake Tanganyika in 1856. On his way back, Speke went up north and saw “a lake so bright that you couldn’t see the other shore and so long, that no one knows its length”. It was the Ukerewe Lake, the second largest fresh water lake.
Sure that he had found the source of the Nile, John Speke called him Lake Victoria (after the Queen). But Burton did not believe him and they both went back to England, being big enemies.
Speke went back to Africa in 1860, together with James Grant. They traveled throughout the western coast of Lake Victoria and found a cascade in the north edge. There Speke wrote his phrase: “the old Father Nile doubtlessly begins in Victoria”.
They continued to the north, followed the river where they could and arrived to Juba, in Sudan (the point up to where the Nile had been tracked from north to south).
Burton never accepted the claims of Speke and both decided to present their arguments in a public debate in 1864. But the day of the debate Speke died in a hunting-trip accident. He was right, Lake Victoria is the source of the White Nile, but this wasn’t proved until 1877, when the British general Charles George Gordon outlined the map of the river.
The Nile River has always been the most famous and the less comprised one of Africa. The Egyptian civilization had bloomed at its shore, but the river itself was always a mystery to them. Where was its source? And why did it overflow every year? According to the legend, there was a mountain range called “The Mountains of the moon” that fed the Nile with water. Actually, the Nile is divided in two branches, the western one, the White Nile, was a mystery. In the middle of the nineteenth century, some explorers followed the White Nile (from north to south) through a great swamp, called As-Sudd (barrier). A little bit southern, some missioners heard rumors about an inner see that flowed into the White Nile.
These stories fascinated the explorers Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke. Together they traveled to the interior from Zanzibar to study the Lake Tanganyika in 1856. On his way back, Speke went up north and saw “a lake so bright that you couldn’t see the other shore and so long, that no one knows its length”. It was the Ukerewe Lake, the second largest fresh water lake.
Sure that he had found the source of the Nile, John Speke called him Lake Victoria (after the Queen). But Burton did not believe him and they both went back to England, being big enemies.
Speke went back to Africa in 1860, together with James Grant. They traveled throughout the western coast of Lake Victoria and found a cascade in the north edge. There Speke wrote his phrase: “the old Father Nile doubtlessly begins in Victoria”.
They continued to the north, followed the river where they could and arrived to Juba, in Sudan (the point up to where the Nile had been tracked from north to south).
Burton never accepted the claims of Speke and both decided to present their arguments in a public debate in 1864. But the day of the debate Speke died in a hunting-trip accident. He was right, Lake Victoria is the source of the White Nile, but this wasn’t proved until 1877, when the British general Charles George Gordon outlined the map of the river.
John Hanning Speke.,+National+Portrait+Gallery,+London.jpg)
Richard Francis Burton.
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Routes taken by the expeditions of Burton and Speke (1857-1858) and Speke and Grant (1863).
-->If you are interested in the subject, watch the film “Mountains of the moon” (“Montañas de la luna”)
Marco
