The Source Of The Nile

The Source of the Nile is one of the renowned attractions which is also a core reason as to why a visitor can come to do safari in Uganda for the first time and also why some visit Murchison Falls National Park. The source of the Nile is located in Jinja town, one of the best tourist towns in Uganda. Jinja town is also known as the adventure capital of Uganda. Apart from the spectacular sights of the River Nile, that source of the Nile has a broad history backing it up from many years and perhaps, centuries ago.

The River Nile is ranked as the longest river in the world although some sources suggest that Amazon River is slightly longer. The Nile River covers about seven countries in the north-eastern Africa. The Nile is so significant in Africa that some countries can go to war for it, if at all anything is to cut its flow. River Nile is the main water source for sudan and Egypt mainly. The Nile covers about 4132 miles with majorly two main tributaries, that is, the White Nile and the Blue Nile.

History about the source of the Nile

The mysteries of the source of the Nile prevailed for quite long from prehistoric time until when the Victorian explorers saved the perplexing query about the source of the Nile. However, despite the discovery of the source, it still stayed as complex as before. In 2006 a Germany explorer still came up with the idea that the actual source of the Nile is Rwanda near river kagera, however, there was not clear evidence to back up his argument, therefore it stayed that lake victoria has the source of the Nile in Jinja.

Two to three millennia ago, a challenging mystery was all over the super powers then of finding the source of the Nile. In the ancient world behind us, a range of extraordinary individuals were irritated and curious to find out where the long river of Africa originated from, for example, alexander the great and Herodotus from Greece, cyrus and Cambyses from the Persia of then, Julius caesar and captain nero of rome, the failure of the Romans to find the source of the Nile gave birth to saying that; “nili caput quaerere” meaning, to attempt the impossible to.

The failure of the ancient explorer did nothing on the search for the source of the Nile. The Victorian explorers did not put down the shields until the source was discovered. In 1863, Sir John Hanning Speke telegraphed back to the royal geographical society that he has found the source of the Nile, as Lake Victoria, nyanza of then.

However, John Speke’s discovery did not please his opponent burton, so he went ahead and tried to oppose the findings of Speke that the source of the Nile was in Tanzania at Lake Tanganyika. The wrangle was huge between the two explorers; burton and Speke. When burton failed to challenge the evidence from john’s findings he requested the England council to set up a debate between him and john. Unfortunately, john died before the debate, and rumour circulated that john killed himself when scared of the challenge that would merge from the debate with captain burton over the matters concerning the true Nile Source.

Despite, the true source stayed to be Lake Victoria, but still it was not enough, a number of geographers have been coming up with different ideologies about the source . And there is a lot you can do when you visit the source in Jinja town, individually or as a family.

Things to do at the source of the Nile

White water rafting along the rapids at Bujagali Falls is a truly adventurous activity. The boat sails gently from the starting point, however, the speed increases with the flow of the rapids. The white water rafting can be a days excursion trip suitable for you, your family and friends.
Boat cruise along the river nile is another interesting activity where you get a chance to learn about the history of the source and the bujagali fall. The boat ride takes to an island where you can see birds, take photos and, perhaps, visit the crafts shop as well.
You can also enjoy walking around the source, visit monuments with strong intrinsic information about Jinja town and the first indian inhabitants of the area like, Mahatma Gandhi, there is so much more to enjoy at the source all you have to do is adding it to your itinerary.