Evolution of the Nile River Through Time

Abstract

The Nile River, which receives its water from the Ethiopian Highlands and the Central African lakes, is often considered as the world’s longest South-North river. The purpose of this chapter is to produce an updated overview of the stages of the formation of the Nile drainage system. It is based on bringing together all of the available data concerning the stratigraphy and paleoenvironments which prevailed during the evolution of the Nile River from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Mediterranean Sea. During the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) in the whole Mediterranean, river systems were deeply down-cut and extended throughout most of North Africa and South Europe. The Qena River, which had its catchment area in the Southern Galala Plateau and the surrounding desert before the Nile, was Egypt’s master stream before the Nile, a south-west ward drainage. It has been proposed that waters from the Qena River continue to flow to the Atlantic Ocean, which is known as the Trans African Drainage System (TADS). The earliest Nile sediment deposited by a river flowing into Egypt from Ethiopia on its way to the Mediterranean is considered to be the Dandara Formation. The presence of an Ethiopian heavy mineral suite within the Middle Pleistocene Dandara Formation, which has been extensively documented on both banks of the Nile River in Upper Egypt, distinguishes Nile sediments from those found in other riverine systems.