WEBVTT - The Nile IS Just a River in Egypt 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.319 from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.520 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.560 that makes this Stuff you should Know Express Edition, Monday 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.160 Morning Edition. It's the Chilies to Go Edition. I think 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.480 Monday mornings are my favorite time to record. Really, what 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.360 are you kidding me? It's the worst of the worst. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.000 So you were lying? That was lying? I got you. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.360 Oh wait, before we get into this, can we give 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.559 a quick Kiva shout out? We totally should. Thanks to 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.320 Glenn for emailing us to be like, hey, busy movie 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.280 star guys. We we need you to pay attention to 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.320 Glenn and the Glen and Sonia's Yes, Hey guys, So Chuck, 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:56.560 we have reached the seven hundred thousand dollar mark in 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.240 loans from our stuff. You should know. Kiva to k 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.160 i v a dot org slash team slash stuff you 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.520 should know. It's a It's a micro lending organization where 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:11.080 you loan in increments of five bucks to um people 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.479 who use it to basically keep their businesses going. Start 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.360 a new business by inventory whatever and it's basically um 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:23.600 global piece through capitalism. It's Nito torpedo and we support it. 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:25.760 And not only that, not only did we hit the 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.000 seven hundred thousand dollar mark, um, we just celebrated our 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.960 second anniversary. We did in like two years. That is nuts. 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.080 So we're on track. From Glenna's the the uber math 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:38.839 genius of this heading this up, I think he says 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.080 we're on track to hit our three quarters of a 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.440 middle goal in like mid November, and are the original 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.000 goal was to hit it by the end of the year. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.560 So yeah, the juggernaut that is Team s y S 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.400 k On Kiva rolls on. So can you tell that 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.919 to you guys? Eight hundred thousand everybody a million bucks? 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.320 I can't even wt my mind around that. Do you 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.760 remember how all this started? Yeah, that's a simple a 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.680 simple podcast. So a way to go. Everybody on our 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.400 KEYVA team and we're not exclusive. Our Kiva team is 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.960 very open and friendly. Again, if you want a good joint, 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.119 it's k I v A dot org slash team slash 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.639 stuff you should know right all right back to denial, Okay, 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.840 so denial, Chuck, Yes, have you ever heard of an 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.680 ancient man eating crocodile named Gustav. Yeah. Man, I watched 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.079 the video on him, did you. He is enormous and scary. 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.400 He's pretty creepy looking. So for those of you who 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.040 aren't in the know, like Chuck, let me tell you 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.079 a little bit about Gustaf. He's what twenty ft long, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:44.400 Chuck six? Okay, he weighs a ton, he does way ton, 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.560 which is what more than two thousand pounds these days, 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:52.040 isn't it? It's a ton? Uh. And he's about sixty 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.080 years old, they think, which is pretty substantial because wild crocodiles, 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.280 he's a now crocodile. Wild crocodiles lived too, about forty five. 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.200 I think it's the seventy now. Actually, yeah, that's right, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.240 because he was about sixteen two four. So yeah, he's 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.760 pushing seventy and he is very old. And he also 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:14.080 has a real taste for humans. Yeah, I think some. 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:15.560 I think a lot of that is true. I think 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.239 there's a lot of legend built up to though. Well. 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.520 They there's this guy, this hunter, um of him. His 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.160 last name is Fate. What's his first name, Chuck? No, 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.320 his his first name is Um Patrese Faye. Yeah, he 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:32.359 was the documentary that I watched when he tried to 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.440 catch him. He seems to be something of a controversial 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.160 figure and he's a bit of a captain ahab and 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.960 Gustaf is his quick quake, yes at least um and uh. Anyway, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.000 that the point is, I would say I think about 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:50.360 three hundred people are attributed to dying to Gustav. Yeah, 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.839 and one some legend has it that he sometimes won't 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.600 even eat you, he'll just kill you, which makes me think, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.640 you know, that's probably not true, right, he kills for 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.280 sport or something exactly. So goose Off has been on 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.880 the loosen Burundi for a long time, and he is 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.160 a now crocodile and he's in Burundi because the Nile 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.240 actually flows partially through Burundi, which is the whole reason 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.440 I brought up Goosetad in the first place. It's a 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.320 great way to start. It was, Okay, you know much 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.840 about the Nile, A little bit. I know a thing 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:24.080 or two. It is just a river in Egypt, but 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.800 it's not just in Egypt. So if you have a 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.120 problem with the title stuff emailing, because we know what 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.960 we're talking about. It's in technically, if you want to know, 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:36.640 it's in Uganda, Sudan, Egypt, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:41.640 and the aforementioned Burundi. Yes, and throughout all those countries. Um. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.240 But now it gets fairly wide. I think it's up 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:49.280 to tin kilometers wide at its widest point. Yes, that's 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.719 good to know. But ten kilometers that's that's a substantial 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.080 width for a river, right. Um, it's over five miles wide, 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.440 so um, and which is kind of wide. But at 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:05.119 the same time, for flowing through ten countries, it's still 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:09.040 fairly narrow compared to its length. Yet about three hundred 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.919 and seventy million people depend on the Nile to survive 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:14.960 and have for a long time, not that many people, 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.080 a very long time as a matter of fact. Um. 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.640 In Ethiopia, where one of the Nile's headwaters are the 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.120 the it's considered the cradle of the Cush people, which 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.160 are which is the black race, I guess, um, and 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.159 possibly the human race is the cradle of the human race. 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.720 But don't tell the Arian brotherhood because they will be mad. Yeah, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.040 get mad about everything. Yeah, they do. Josh, to tell 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.320 us some more about the Nils, like there's some amazing facts. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.920 It is a river, but it's an amazing river, and 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.200 it's not even the longest river, is it. Now? The 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.680 Amazon generally is quoted as a little bit longer by 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.360 I think they said the most recent expedition. Uh, they 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:02.680 found out and they used advanced mapping equipment, which is advanced. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.400 That the Niles about four hundred I'm sorry, four thousand, 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:11.440 one seventy five miles long, nineteen kilometers and the Amazon 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:13.440 clock sit and we're gonna do an Amazon show too 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:18.800 at so it's about sixty five miles longer. And that's 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.600 I think that the New Nile, as we'll call it, 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:26.440 includes the new headwaters south of Lake Victoria. Is that 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.640 what they determined because he used to say it was 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.680 originated in Lake Victoria? Yeah? There, Now it's south a 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.560 little bit right. There was a guy that was controversial. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:36.560 Um when when the guy came up? But there was 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.479 a guy named John Hanning speck or speak, and he 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:44.000 was an English explorer who lived to eighteen sixty four. 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.039 Before his death, he went on an expedition to Africa 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.280 and went off by himself. He got his co expedition 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.360 leader got injured, so he went off by himself and 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.080 found I don't think it was good father, um. And 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.000 he found Lake Victoria and said, well, this is guy 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.680 to be the Nile and lake must be the headwaters. 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.120 And there was this big public debate over whether it 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.840 was real or not, and um between the guy who 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.880 was injured and not on the expedition and Speak, and 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:14.840 so finally Speak was like playing, you know what, let's 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.920 go back. So we went back and they found the 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.640 place where the Nile exits Lake Victoria. So Lake Victoria 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.440 has traditionally been the source of the Nile, but they 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.280 found that actually, no, there's some headwaters somewhere in some 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.840 forests in Rwanda. And you say that it's south of 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.400 Lake Victoria, which is crazy, chuck, because that means that 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.400 the Nile flows south to north. Yeah. I remember when 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:38.000 I was a kid, I thought that was so strange 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.000 because I thought south meant lower and it's just not 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.520 the case. In Africa. The low Land, I'm sorry, the 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.800 highland is south, and so it just flows towards the 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:51.080 equator with gravity like it should towards the equator. Never 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:56.360 had of cavity, not just not one. So um, yeah, 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:58.920 the the that is kind of big news though, that 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:03.000 the head water is the source of the nile. Um 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.800 it has changed that. It's I like how it's somewhere 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.840 deep in a forest in Rwanda. That's pretty cool. That's 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.160 fairly mysterious. So it still has a mysterious origin. It's 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:17.360 always had this kind of mysterious dark Africa vibe to it. 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.640 The nile has. So, Josh, let's talk about the tributaries. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.880 If you're gonna talk about the nile, you got to 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.640 talk about the fact that there's the White Nile and 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.600 there's the Blue Nile. The white is the the newest 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.520 source south of Lake Victoria. Is is the White Nile 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.000 easiest to navigate. It's the longer section but actually has 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.320 less water feeds less water. So we're gonna talk about 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.959 how the nile like raises and lowers in a little bit. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.920 But it's the white Nile that's responsible for that. Yeah, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.439 And it's Uh. It's lightish gray in color for the sediment, 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.280 which is why they called the white Nile. The Blue 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.080 Nile is very sparkly blue in its origins and the 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.080 Ethiopian mountains, and UH provides about two thirds of the 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:03.080 water to the river. And then it turns darker as 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.400 it goes in the Sudan, things get dark. The Blue Nile, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.840 yeah Um, and the there's also another tributary that's that's 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.840 the two largest tributaries, the Blue Nile in the White. Now. 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.559 I also found out that after the nile exits a 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.640 lake like it comes out of Lake Victoria. That's called 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.359 the Victoria Nile. Then it gets the Lake Albert, Victoria's 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.080 lover boy, and then after it exits that it's the 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.720 Albert Nile. So that it's named kind of based on 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.400 where it isn't any given part in time. But the 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:37.120 other the third major tributary that at Bara River Um, 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.400 which comes out of the eastern portion of Sudan, is 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.200 actually Um. They think it's the original source of the 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.320 nile thirty and now is about thirty million years old 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.240 from the Tertiary period. But they think that that was 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.320 the original source, and other rivers started coming out and 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.240 joining together and now it forms the huge, massive nile. Well, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:58.760 it goes to a lot of twists and turns on 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:00.679 the way, and we'll talk about a couple those, but 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.280 let's go ahead and just tell you the ending. Now 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:08.439 spoiler alert, it splits again in Egypt into the Damietta, 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.319 which is on the east side or is that on 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:16.800 the west. Damia is on the west the east, Damiette 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:18.560 is on the east, Rosetta is on the west. I 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.080 had it right to begin with. I had it right 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.280 one of those times and that uh, and then you 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:24.959 know it splits in the two main things. But it's 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.160 really a fan of many, many little fingers that all 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.800 spill out into the Mediterraneans. But did you notice what 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.320 those two things were called, the Damietta and the Rosetta. 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.360 They were called distributaries, right, You have tributaries coming in, 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:41.040 distributaries distribute. Yeah, that's where the word distribute comes from. 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.800 That was what's sad is. I was like, wow, there's 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.520 the fact of the puk. That was it. Yeah, I 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.960 like all the canal stuff do Yeah. Well, I mean 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:54.480 it's not the fact, but I just thought that was 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.080 the coolest stuff. How they made it work for them. Yeah. 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.840 So as the niles flowing from south to north, it's pretty, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.520 it's pretty. I mean it's wide, it flows, but I 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.640 mean like it's not You're not gonna get thrown out 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.840 of a kayak on it until you get to as one. Right, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.520 Once you get to as One. There's six cataracts after 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.360 that between as One and the Nile Delta. And these 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.560 cataracts are basically rapids. I wonder how like really really 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.320 navigable the boat, Like, okay, you gotta get out and 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.200 put your boat on a trailer and drive around and 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.359 then get back in. What do you call that unnavigable? 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:29.920 Navigable word for that when you have to to pull 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:35.520 your canoe out and do some walking besides sucks? Yeah, bummer, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.880 I'm just Monday morning, Friday afternoon. I would have that 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.800 word at my ready. I'm sure that, um, people have 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.720 hit these rapids before. But I mean you're talking not 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.560 just this isn't you know, like a normal river creek. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.360 This is the Nile hitting rapids. So there's six of 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.080 those and then you get to um the delta and 0:11:55.120 --> 0:12:00.120 then calms down again. Um, it's the longest kiss in history. 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.560 That's what they call it the Arab poets. Isn't it nice? 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.600 That is nice? Like when they meet that's the kiss 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.640 huh and at Khartoum. Yeah, that is very nice. I 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:12.400 thought that was very poetic, which is I guess why 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:17.840 poets wrote it, right, Okay, So um, you want to 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.400 hear a little more, a few more stats. I actually 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.200 have a couple of stats. Let's hear it, just a 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.080 couple more things. If you live on the Nile and 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.520 you're a member of a certain ethnic group, a few 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:34.359 ethnic groups, especially in Sudan, you're described as nihilotic, like Caucasian, 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.760 you're nihilotic. Um. If you were to measure the amount 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.560 of water that passes down the Nile every day at 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:48.000 its peak, you would come up with seventy nine billion, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.600 two d fifty one million, six hundred fifteen thousand, three 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.559 hundred seventy two US gallons, which is three hundred million 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:59.199 cubic meters of water every day. And if you wanted 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.000 to get to the root of the name of the Nile, 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:08.440 Nelios is Greek for are you ready for this river valley? 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.800 It's a disappointed. It was a little disappointed. I thought 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.200 so too. Sometimes it just makes too much sense. So, um, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.800 there's a certain culture of people that grew up along 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.800 the Nile. We mentioned the Kush people from Ethiopia. Um, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.680 But they get a lot less press than their neighbors 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.640 to the to the west, the ancient Egyptians. Yes, this 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:37.000 is after the Great Bend north of the Great Bend. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.640 We left out the Great Bend. Well, the Great Bend 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.199 is interesting because it literally runs east to west for 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:45.760 a little while, then bends back and runs the other way. Yeah, 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.079 it's going just due north and then it cuts It's 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.080 pretty switch back. You would call that if you were 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.400 a hiker. Yeah. And they they found out finally, like 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.080 this is perplexed people who um navigated the river and 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.199 mapped it and they're like, what the what is this? 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.040 Stinds this because it actually does it in one of 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.840 the driest points of Earth on Earth. Um, the whole 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:07.960 area around it is dry. To that's worth pointing out 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.280 is it's in the middle of some serious, serious sand. Well, 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.120 it depends on what part you're at. It goes through 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.120 a lot of different clients, but when it hits the 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.560 Great Band, it's like in the middle of the Sahara 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.360 Desert and it should just keep going north, but it didn't. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:27.800 So they found in I think through um through satellite photos, 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.440 they found that there's this ancient river bed that it 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.480 did used to go straight and something happened. They they 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:37.600 estimate between ten thousand and one million years ago something happened. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.120 Uh and now it takes this bend. No one knows 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.240 what that. It just ain't the same sense then though. Wow. Interesting. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.520 I wonder if it was superstitious in nature, if like 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.000 some person stood and said halt to the Nile and 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:54.960 it went around him. I don't think so. I think 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:56.680 it was the other way around. I think the Nile 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.800 just is kind of like, we're your boss. So I 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.120 mentioned that a lot of the northern part, especially in Egypt, 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.160 is in the middle of serious sand, and that sand 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.360 is what protected the Nile in the Nile River basin 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.040 and the people there because it was you know, you 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.480 couldn't just like walk over there and attack them. You 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.720 were lucky to make it through the desert to get 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.760 to the Nile. It served as a natural protection plan. 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:29.840 That's I didn't realize that. Yeah. Um, so you you 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.960 know about ancient Egypt. Of course there were several kingdoms, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.480 each of which collapsed. UM. Very advanced people. So they 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.680 were one of the cool things. We we talked about 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:44.960 the Nile rising and falling every year. UM. The blue 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.560 Niles steady, slow and steady coming out of the Ethiopian highlands. UM. 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.400 And it's the white now coming out of Rwanda. And 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:57.000 through Lake Victoria, UM and through Sudan UH that that 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.480 is subject to fluctuations because there's heavy rainfall, and Rwanda 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:02.920 there's also I saw a heavy rain in the Ethiopian 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.400 highlands too, though there is but for some reason, the 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.280 Nile stays steady. The Blue Nile coming out of Ethiopia 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.040 stays steady. And snow melting too was another big reason. 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.320 So I think what it is Maybe Africa rains on 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.280 one during one part of the year, and then the 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.400 snowmel happens in another, and it equals basically just an 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.440 equal volume coming out. So in UH on the White 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:29.080 Nile it's subject to a wild fluctuation and UM it 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.080 drops down, it raises up to twenty feet at its 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:39.760 highest point. And the ancient Egyptians, UM, we're pretty smart 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.400 about capturing this stuff. They could capture the water and 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.720 canals and basins so much so that they would have 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.480 all the water they needed for next year's crops. All 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.640 let me say that again, they could capture all the 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:57.160 water they needed for next year's crops through the nile. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:01.160 That's right, Uh. Specifically, John, the river is at its 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.000 lowest in May, it's at its highest in September. So 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.600 between May and September. Uh, there's something called the rise, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.480 which is the uh inundation, and then there's the fall, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.720 which is the relinquishment. Happens around October's when it starts 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.639 to fall. And during that that time where it rises 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:21.520 so much, like you said, they would capture this water. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.280 It would flood the sand there and when it receded, 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.200 it would leave this mud. This's awesome rich fertile silt. 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.040 They would dry that out for about a week and 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.959 then they would start a plant. That's why the um 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:40.199 the nile delta is so lush. It's that annual you know, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.560 bringing of the silt. That's dude. This that changed the 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:50.600 history of the world and definitely Africa. And apparently the 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.120 silt is between fifty and hundred feet deep and it's 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.520 just this black, rich, nutrient rich soil that you could 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:03.560 take rocks in. Yeah. Um yeah, but still I know 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.320 what you meant, um and uh yeah, like you said, 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.400 it changed the history of the world. And um there 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.840 was problematic is it was a gift as well as 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.760 a curse because it would not only um bring the silt, 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.120 sometimes it would bring way too much water. It would 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:21.800 ruin it would come in at the wrong time and 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.600 they couldn't harvest fast enough. But the Nile giveth, it 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.720 taketh away, right exactly, So to prevent the flooding and 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.120 to allow for more settlement because you know, you need 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.480 to pack people in there. As a matter of fact, 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.760 the Nile is one of the most densely populated areas 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.240 on Earth, right. Yeah, there's a stat here somewhere. I 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:44.199 think it's like thirty eight people per square mile, Yeah, 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:48.800 which is um, Yes, that's dense, my friend, is very dense. 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.080 And it was always that dense or not that dense, 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:53.320 but it's always been very dense with people because that 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.600 was the life, the life blood, as they say. So 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.919 when you have a bunch of people, um, you need 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.639 to settle them where you can. And you can't just 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.359 let the Nile flood everybody every year and then rebuild. 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:08.840 So what they did is they started building a system 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.879 of dams and uh, they started controlling them now a 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.640 little more so they can keep the flooding in check. 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.560 They've got plenty of water for irrigation, but they're losing 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.439 out on the sediment. Yeah, reduced the fertility some. So 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.879 they started using fertilizer. They kind of rolled with the 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.280 punches over the years from what I gathered as far 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.480 as you know, building the dams, and they realized that 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.399 saved the land from being flooded too much. But it 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.600 also they said, we get start using fertilizer now. They did. 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.720 It was part of the green Revolution, I think. So 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.359 it's kind of like, yeah, we've got all this fertilizer, 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:49.560 but now we're screwing up the land two different ways. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.480 It's basically it's just another example of humans controlling nature 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.840 and shooting themselves in the foot, you know. Yeah. But 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:59.000 the the good thing, the good news is though that 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.840 through their control and through this silt in the flooding, 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.119 it allowed for a lot of kind of crops that 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.560 you wouldn't think you would be able to grow out there, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.639 like wheat and barley. Um. I think these days, what 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:15.879 do they grow? Uh, cotton even sorghum, well, Egyptian cotton 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.000 the best. It's very very solid. What kind of threadcount 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.199 you go with these days? Higher the better? You know. 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.160 What I just recently learned is higher actually means heavier too. 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:29.760 So if you go out and get like a one 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:32.399 thousand thread count sheet, you might not be getting what 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.639 you're looking for because it might feel more a blanket. Right. 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.240 It depends on what what thread, what type of fabric 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.359 they're using. Yeah, exactly. Um, it's on the weave, it is. 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:43.520 And also you have to look out for you you 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:45.639 definitely get what you pay for if you find like 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:50.200 six hundred thread count sheets for like internet. The reason why, Um, 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:52.800 it is six hundred thread count, but they're counting each 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.160 of the three strands of thread. So with rather than 0:20:56.200 --> 0:21:01.000 a single thread counting, you know, six hundred times, it's 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.880 one thread divided by into the three strands that make 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:08.600 up that single thread thread counts. Because I've seen those 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:10.560 on the internet, you know, six undred thread count front 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.040 and then you'd like pull it up over you and 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.480 you get like a rash. You might as well sleep 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.880 in a potato sack or something. You get the Nile rash. Yeah. So, um, Chuck, 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.720 we talked about damns. I did a little extra research. 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.760 It turns out that the Nile connects nine countries, and 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:35.480 it connects them geo politically as well as just geologically geographically. 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.840 Um and I apparently Egypt and Sudan like to make 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:43.439 agreements over water use for the Nile. And this has 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:45.800 been going on for a really long time. Used to 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:50.639 be Egypt and Ethiopia, and Egypt would occasionally, um accused 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.439 Ethiopia of you know, controlling the Nile and keeping the 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.760 water to themselves, which they had no no way of doing. 0:21:58.040 --> 0:21:59.960 And then every once in a while, Ethiopia would threat 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.200 and to do that, and Egy would be like, okay, alright, alright, 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.840 let's talk to keep all the water right. Um. So uh, 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.120 then it changed between EAGYPT and Sudan, and that's those 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.399 are still two of the biggest players now. So Egypt 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.440 has a really long history of blocking projects that would 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:20.399 kind of equitably distribute the Nile waters. And you remember 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:26.359 in Ethiopia had this horrible famine, um do you remember, um? 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.040 But the Nile was just fine. They just hadn't figured 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.040 out or they weren't using it to eargate properly, and 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.280 the world didn't really care that much at first. It 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:40.160 took a little while to remember it took it took 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:41.840 a while. It was a big deal before I found 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:45.320 out about it. In other words, yes, exactly, I have 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.760 a little factor. The show for me is to measure 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:52.400