The Nile: the Egyptians called it Ar or Aur, which meant “black,” or they referred to it simply as “the river.” It was the Greeks who actually gave the Nile its name, from the word for “valley” i.e. Neilos.The White Nile rises in Lake Victoria in Equatorial Africa, joins the Blue Nile, which rises at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and snakes its way down to enter Egypt in the south, at Aswan. From there it sweeps down to the Mediterranean Sea. In historical times it had three phases: Akhet, from June to September, when it was in flood, called the inundation; Peret, from October to February, when all
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