The White Nile originates in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, with its farthest source located in southern Rwanda. It flows north through Tanzania to Lake Victoria, then into Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia, flowing into Sudan from the southeast, where the two rivers meet at the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
The total length of the Nile River is 6,650 km (4,132 miles). Its basin covers an area of 3.4 million km² and flows through eleven African countries, known collectively as the Nile Basin countries.
The name “Nile” derives from the Greek term *Neilos* (Greek: Νειλος). In Greek, it is also called *Aigyptos* (Greek: Αιγυπτος), which is one of the European origins for the name of Egypt (*Aegyptus* in Latin).
