The Nile is arguably the longest river in the world and flows over a number of countries and terrains.
Despite the attempts of the Greeks and Romans (who were unable to penetrate the Sudd), the upper reaches of the Nile remained largely unknown. Various expeditions had failed to determine the river's source, thus yielding classical Hellenistic and Roman representations of the river as a male god with his face and head obscured in drapery. Agatharcides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian highlands, but no European in Antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana, let alone retraced the steps of this expedition farther than Meroe.
Europeans learned little new information about the origins of the Nile until the 15th and 16th centuries, when travelers to Ethiopia visited not only Lake Tana, but the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Although James Bruce claimed to have been the first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers with better knowledge give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez. Páez’ account of the source of the Nile (History of Ethiopia c. 1622) was not published in full until the early 20th century. The work is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. The account is however featured in several contemporary works, including Balthazar Telles (Historia geral da Ethiopia a Alta, 1660), Athanasius Kircher (Mundus Subterraneus, 1664) and by Johann Michael Vansleb (The Present State of Egypt, 1678). Europeans had been resident in the country since the late 15th century, and it is entirely possible one of them had visited the headwaters even earlier but was unable to send a report of his discoveries out of Ethiopia. Jerónimo Lobo also describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. His account is likewise utilized by Balthazar Telles.
The White Nile was even less understood, and the ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile; for example, Pliny the Elder wrote that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyles, then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for a distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." A merchant named Diogenes reported the Nile’s water attracted game such as water buffalo; and after the Persians introduced them in the 7th century BC, camels.
Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore whilst on his journey with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. The well known British explorer and missionary David Livingstone failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately the Welsh explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the Lake's northern shore. It was on this journey that Stanley was said to have greeted the British explorer with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" upon discovering the Scotsman ill and despondent in his camp on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
A copy of John H. Speke's book, "Discovery of the Source of the Nile" written in the 19th Century, can be downloaded for free from http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3284 .
Most rivers have an obvious starting point - namely the headwaters. These can take the form of a spring, naturally fed lake, marsh/swamp or a glacier. The Nile was interesting in that being so long, no one was sure of it's exact source over history. The outflow from Lake Victoria (this cache) was felt to be the source for most of the past century. However, recently, the furtherest headwaters of Lake Victoria in Rwanda are laying claim to being the true source. Having two major tributaries (White and Blue Niles), also exacerbated the debate. The Albert Nile (feeding into Lake Albert) was arguably the longer tribtary until volcanic eruptions pushed up the Virunga Mountain range in northern Rwanda blocking the course.
To claim the cache:
1) How long is the River Nile? Compare it to other long rivers in the world.
2) Send a photograph of your team (with GPRs) at this monument. [Optional]
3) The large Aswan Dam is located further downstream - expalin some of the impacts (positive and negative) a large dam like this can have on a river and the hydrological action thereof.
4)From what elevation does the Nile start (here at the cache) and then move down to sea level? So over this entire length - what is the average gradient for the river? (i.e. length divided by elevation drop - use the same units e.g. metres or feet).
5) Give your explaination on whether you believe the true source of the Nile is here at Jinja, or in Rwanda, or elsewhere. Justify your answer based on what the "source of a river" is in your opinion. Use verious geographical features at each of the "sources" to justify your answer.
Note: You can log this cache from the other side of the river at the observation deck too. 