So then, continuing these articles on the Four Rivers of Paradise, we have come to number two as mentioned in Genesis, we find the ancient old Gihon River. And we believe this can only be taking about the river known today as The River Nile or Nile River of Egypt. But now, how big did this River use to be? Gihon is the name of the second river we find mentioned in the second chapter of Genesis 2,10-14 (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates):
"10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."
We find the name in modern Hebrew (Gihon - bursting forth or gushing), and in Genesis we see descriptions we are to take seriously as Gihon encircled the entire land of Cush, associated with Ethiopia and the lands around Egypt - should we include Cusk as being bigger parts of West-Africa here? Remember Moses wife was a Cushite, which Miriam did not approve mindling with Egyptians. SoNiNi then turned her skin white for uttering her disapproval of Moses marrying an outsider, marrying someone who was not of Israel.
Now any thinking man can see, that this River starts in the Middle of Africa somewhere, and ends (mouths) in the now called Mediterranean Sea. Meaning, if you put the world on a globe, if flows upwards half the length of the globe. Come on people, our world is not what we think in terms of shape and how it works is not well understood.
Now if we read our Bible it clearly says that the Gihon (Geon) encircles the entire land of Cush... And we know Kush has often (historically) been associated with Ethiopia or as the Greek called it (burnt Face). So if you ask the Ethiopians themselves they will tel you that they have long been identifying the Gihon (Giyon) with the Blue Nile (Abay River). The Blue Nile does encircle the former Gojjam, but does go more straight across half of Africa then encircle it (perhaps the wording is misleading in English). Now modern historians cannot place Gihon in Africa, well because that would in due time force them to change their whole narrative and historical view of Africa. And they are not ready to do that just yet. They will. We find here that historically at least Josephus agrees that Gihon is the River Nile. Now more trustworthy sources like the book of Jasher, says that Enosh times (Adams grandson) the Gihon had catastrophic floods because of mans wickedness (Jasher 2:6).
Now the Nile as we know it today is a major River, that if you believe the globe is what it is, flows UPWARDS meaning north. It is also coming out from the Middle of Africa, quite possibly from the same source as the other 3 Rivers (as our Scriptures tell us). The Nile is the longest River in Africa and should be a good candidate as being the longest River in the world (though it is probably The Amazon). Its Drainage Basin does impact a list of 11 different countries: Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Rep. Sudan and Egypt. Now the last mentioned is dependant on the movements of the Nile, it is the Egyptians primary water source. Sudan is also quite dependant of the Nile, both Republic of and South Sudan.
The Nile has two major tributaries, The White Nile and the Blue Nile. The Blue nile is the most plentiful in water (downstream), while The White Nile is longer and pours over the regions and into of bodies of water. This River begins (officially) at Lake Victoria and flows through Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows then into Sudan, these two Niles meet in the capital of Khartoum (from Lawrence of Arabia movie).
The northern parts of The Nile flows almost entirely through the Nubian Desert all the way up (or down) to Cairo and the ancient Egyptian Delta. Then it mouths at Alexandria. Now most of the structures you hear about in Egyptian Archeology is found along the banks of the Nile, especially around the Nile valley just north of Aswan Dam.
If we look closer into the etymology, we see the English White and Blue Nile. Now in ancient Egyptian we see the name Hapy (H`phi) or even Iteru, which means River. In Coptic it sounds more like Piaro, Nubian sounds like Dawu, in Luganda its Kiira, in Arabic its En-Nil, in Hebrew they read it Ha-Yeor. So not much help there in therms of tracing it to be Gihon or Geon, we have to go to the ancient Ethiopic to get to that vantage point. Now in ancient Greek (and Latin) we see it was called Neilos (Νεῖλος) but also sources called the River Aiguptos (Αἴγυπτος).
Now where the Nile (Gihon) starts or started in its underground basins or how much further down into Africa it went back in the day, it hard to say. But we can conclude it may have been further down than its mouth at Lake Victoria (Nam Lolwe to the Locals), we can do this by looking at the connected drainage basin footage below. Some scientist speculate that it went as far down as northern Zambia at one point. But did it drain into the Sea somewhere on the East or West African coast? Well, if it joined with another of the Great Rivers of today, it is certainly possible.
And as we can see from the images, the basins all connect underground, giving just different names to a handful of rivers really. And then the size of the Nile truly grows, and remember its already one of the largest rivers on Earth. Now if we compare the size of the Rivers (Like Congo) The Nile does carry allot less water. But it makes up for that with its complex basin system. So we mentioned above the White Nile and Blue Nile, both having their spring in East African Rift. The Blue Nile starts in the mountain ranges of Ethiopia, however the White Niles main spring, remains a mystery, some saying Karega River, which brings the White Nile much further down into Africa, in Burundi with Luvironza and Rurubu River.
So then, the White Nile leaves Lake Victoria in Uguanda (Jinja) and flows into Lake Kyoga, to Karuma Falls, then Murchison falls then the shores of Lake Albert where it forms a delta. Lake Albert borders DRC (Democratic republic of Congo), then going north through Uganda. Then the White Nile flows into Sudan, which may have been ancient Babylon, or at least a part of Ancient Babylon. it confluences with the Achwa River, and into Lake No. Then Mongalla and its new name Bahr al Jabal. Below Renk it enters the Sudan, and flows to Khartoum and meets up with the Blue Nile. In the North of Sudan, the river flows into Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia) which a big part of is in Egypt.
NOW and keeping the map on the Left in mind (we chose one of the older African maps of Ortelius, which again is drawn from earlier sources and people). In this map we see a completely different flow of the Nile and Zambezi River. Here we see that the Nile did seem to go all the way down even to the Port of Sofala, in todays Mozambique. Now this changes things, and works more in favour of the Biblical flows of the rivers. Now Geologists will tell you that the Nile did flow longer into Southern Africa, but they will put their millions of years estimates as they tend to do. Although the events that dried up the land, was indeed much more recent.
Now if we consult Herodotus, and his Oikoumene (Ecumene) his descriptions of the inhabited world, we do find the Nile there as it was spread more over the African continent, and there was certainly less sand, more vegetation and more water. Now looking at the modern rendition of Herodotus map, we can see that Africa was well known and he even talks about it being circumnavigated by Egyptians, which would be thousands of years before European Settlers.
Back to the Nile, and we see that there are modern theories of Lake Tanganyika having drained northwards into the Nile, until the Vulcano Virunga blocked the path in Rwanda. We can see researchers speculating that the Nile was much longer at that time, with some of its waters going all the way into northern Zambia. And herewith follows theories about the so-called Integrated Nile.
Now back to Herodotus, we see that he wrote that Egypt was the gift of the Nile, and people that lived along its banks lived in and unending source of prosperity and sustenance. This river played a crucial and pivotal role for the Egyptians and their agricultural success. The overflows of the River on its banks would every year deposit new layers of silt making the lands every fertile and replenishing. So in Mzraim (Egypt) they would grow and trade wheat, sorghum, flax and lots of papyri (papyrus) for paper a serious commodity back in the day. Now Egypt traded with everyone and got very wealthy doing just that, and they thanked the god of the River Hapi, overseer of annual floods. Which also the Pope - sorry Pharaoh, about the same thing right? - was god on earth and natures overseer for control of things like floods and rains.
Now on the banks of the Nile there was also transport from all the inner Kingdoms and chiefdoms of Africa, they used the Nile simply as means of transportation of people and different goods. Along its banks one wold see the water buffalo, used for meat and ploughing, as camels was used for case and carriage. The Nile was the bridge between life and death and the afterlife, according to the Egyptians. And in the East was the place of birth and growth, and the west was death, much because the sun god Amen RA underwent birth and death, every day as he (the sun) crossed the sky. Therefore, we see an observations of tombs on the west side of the nile, the side of death. We see furthermore that the Egyptians has the calendar based on the three cycles of the Nile. Three seasons of 4 months of 30 days each, and just like all of Africa this calendar was deeply agricultural.
Akhet - Floods and plenty of good soils.
Peret - Growing and cultivation.
Shemu - harvest season without rains.
Now, getting closer to the end here, we find that in searches for the White Nile, we find that ancient belief was that the Niger River in West Africa, was and perhaps is actually a part of the Nile (being the upper reaches of the White Nile). Now we know this from Pliny the Elder (Natural History 50.10.L51-52):
"The sources from which the Nile rises have not been ascertained, proceeding as it does through scorching deserts for an enormously long distance and only having been explored by unarmed investigators, without the wars that have discovered all other countries; but so far as King Juba was able to ascertain, it has its origin in a mountain of lower Mauretania not far from the Ocean, and immediately forms a stagnant lake called Nilides. Fish found in this lake are the alabeta, coracinus and silurus; also a crocodile was brought from it by Juba to prove his theory, and placed as a votive offering in the temple of Isis at Caesarea, where it is on view today. Moreover it has been observed that the Nile rises in proportion to excessive falls of snow or rain in Mauretania. [52] Issuing from this lake the river disdains to flow through arid deserts of sand, and for a distance of several days' journey it hides underground but afterwards it bursts out in another larger lake in the territory of the Masaesyli clan of Mauretania Caesariensis, and so to speak makes a survey of the communities of mankind, proving its identity by having the same fauna. Sinking again into the sand of the desert it hides for another space of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians, and when it has once more become aware of man's proximity it leaps out in a fountain, probably the one called the Black Spring."
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