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The Search for the Source of the Nile: Solving Geography's Last Great Riddle

The search for the source of the Nile River was one of the last great geographical mysteries of 19th-century European exploration. Men like Livingston, Burton, Speke, and Stanley launched multiple expeditions to reach the rumoured Great Lakes of East Africa to discover where exactly the Nile waters came from. Not only an endeavour that filled a blank on the map, navigating the upper reaches of the Nile was seen as essential if trade, missionary work, and, ultimately, colonisation were to follow.

The Blank on the Map

As the 19th century dawned, Europeans still did not know where the Nile River sprang from. The prevalence of deadly diseases like malaria had prevented explorers from penetrating very far into Africa's interior, but this did not stop pioneers like Mungo Park (1771-1806), who attempted to find the source of the Niger River. From around 1820, new medicines like quinine helped combat Africa's worst diseases, and so the huge blank areas on the map of the continent began to be filled in. One of the most puzzling questions was the source of the Nile River, the waterway so well known through history and so vital to the welfare of Egypt.

Egyptian-sponsored expeditions were launched to find the source of the Nile, first travelling through Sudan and reaching the cataract at Juba around 1842. It was known that the Nile split into two near Khartoum, the Blue Nile branching off into Ethiopia, where its source was to be found in the highlands. The second branch, the White Nile, was the one of more interest to Europeans, as this led south into the heart of East Africa, where it was rumoured there were many great lakes. Knowledge of East Africa's lakes had long been in the possession of Arab traders coming from the south, particularly Zanzibar. These traders had penetrated deep into the interior in search of new sources of slaves. What was next required was someone to follow the White Nile from the north and head south to these lakes and find out which one was the source. At this point, there remained speculation that the lakes might all be part of a single inland sea called Unyamwezi.

There was more than mere geographical curiosity about the issue, since if navigable waterways could be found and mapped, this would greatly help the Europeans to establish new trade relations and exploit the vast natural resources most people imagined were hiding away in Africa's interior. The dream was to have steamships navigating up and down the Nile, bringing European-manufactured goods for sale to local peoples and then transporting precious raw materials like gold, ivory, and rubber to the coast and back to Europe. That was the dream, but the reality of mid-19th century Africa was that travelling anywhere was extremely difficult, highly dangerous, and entirely dependent on the cooperation of Africans, from chiefs to porters. Certainly, the European explorers determined to find the Nile's source were very often prejudiced and self-interested, but they were also brave and resourceful in an alien environment where no outside help could be expected.

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