NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 8 Africa — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 22 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
On the map (Fig. 1.22) locate the course of the River Nile. Where does it originate from and in which direction does it flow? Turn to the political map at the end of the book, and identify some of the areas that the river flows through.
Answer
Origin. On Fig. 1.22 the blue line of the Nile begins in the lake country of eastern Africa, at the point where Uganda and Tanzania are marked — the great lakes of the East African highlands.
Direction. It flows almost due north, from the highlands near the Equator to the Mediterranean Sea, where it ends in a delta on the coast of Egypt.
Areas it flows through, read off the map and checked against the political map at the end of the book: the Uganda–Tanzania lake region → South Sudan → Sudan → Egypt → the Mediterranean Sea.
The Nile runs from the East African highlands northwards to the Mediterranean, crossing South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.
Why it happens: most great rivers we know in India flow east or west, so a river flowing north looks odd. But a river has no sense of direction — it only goes downhill. The land at the Nile’s source is high tableland near the Equator; the Mediterranean coast is at sea level. So the slope, and therefore the river, runs north. Its length is exactly why it matters: crossing the whole width of the Sahara belt, it carries water from a wet region into a desert one. That is what made the ancient Egyptian civilisation possible — for thousands of years the river has provided irrigation that turns dry land into fields of wheat, barley, flax, fruit and vegetables, along with drinking water, fish, hydroelectric power and a transport route.