Talk:Blue Nile

Navigated by 2130?
"The first European to actually navigate the Blue Nile from Lake Tana to the Nile Delta was James Bruce, a Scottish explorer, who undertook the journey in the 1770s. Even then, it took almost another 360 years before the gorge of the Nile was completely mapped."

By my reckoning, this means that the gorge will be mapped by 2130. Don't know how to edit as I'm new to Wikipedia.

Cheers —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.20.50.1 (talk) 06:43, 11 December 2006 (UTC).


 * Actually, nothing in that statement is factually true, to my best nkowledge. Bruce visited the source of the Blue Nile, and later traced part of the course of the Nile, but that part was from around Sennar to the Delta; the portion between the Tis Issat Falls at least as far downstream as Manbuk (also known as Guba) was not visited in one act until the 20th century. -- llywrch 04:22, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Merge?
There is a merge proposal at the top of this article, to merge with Abay River. This seems logical to me. Merge the material from Abay into this article, then make Abay a redirect to this article. If there is no objection, I will do this in the near future. Unschool (talk) 01:41, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation
"transliterated: ʿAbbay but pronounced Abbai" It might be just me, but I'd pronounce both exactly the same (making this somewhat useless). Can someone set up the IPA for this? (I would, but I'm not sure how to pronounce it.) PseudoAgrippa (talk) 01:01, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Facutal error
"This photo showed a bridge broken during World War II, with 10 men on either side of the broken span pulling each other across the dangerous gap by rope. This historic bridge was built by Emperor Fasilides of Ethiopia in approximately 1660 with Roman bridge technology brought to Ethiopia by Portuguese soldiers during the battle with the Muslim invaders in 1507" -- There are several errors in this statement.
 * 1) It is not certain that Fasilides built the bridge; what all the authorities state is that it was most likely built during his reign; it could have been built during the reign of his father, Suseynos; but no one has researched the matter (I don't know if the documentation even exists) so one one truly knows.
 * 2) The technology was not "Roman bridge" -- unless the Romans are the only people who know how to construct a bridge with a true arch. And none of the Portuguese soldiers were trained professional civil engineers, so while it is possible one of them designed it, one of the following also could have designed it: an Indian craftsman (the Portuguese brought a number of military slaves, or navvies, along with them, who most likely had the training to create this bridge); a Jesuit priest (they came to the country during the reign of Suseynos, & one might have had some familiarity with civil engineeering principles); an immigrant from the Muslim world (Arab technology was capable of building brick bridges); some unrecorded survivor of a shipwreck who found his way to Ethiopia (castaways, marooned sailors, & deserters from Europe were known to find their way to Ethiopia in the 16th & early 17th centuries.
 * 3) There were no "Muslim invaders" in 1507: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi invaded Highland Ethiopia & ruled it as a Muslim state between 1528 & 1543. The Portuguese came to Ethiopia in the early 1540s, but never reached the Blue Nile before they disbanded as a military unit.
 * 4) I don't think this bridge was destroyed in WWII -- I'll have to check, but the IIRC, the British prevented the Italians from doing just that. And even if this did happen, there is a bridge of this design that crosses the Blue Nile that had its middle removed in the mid-19th cnetury by one warlord to make it difficult for his enemies to invade his territory; I wonder if this is that one.
 * 5) The source quoted here is an embarassingly outdated one -- an article from the 9th Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in 1838! (Ethiopia at that time was largely an unknown land, barely explored by Europeans; I'm surprised that they even knew of these stone bridges then!) Although Bruce wrote his book in the late 18th century, he is quoted as a reliable source because his book, despite its known issues, has not been superceded as a comprehensive source for Ethiopian history in English. So many mistakes, so little time to do the research to properly correct them! -- llywrch (talk) 21:45, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

name
In the article Ak Deniz (Mediterranean Sea) of the turkish wikipedia, I have found white=west and blue=east, that fits the name of the two Nile arms. I am unable to check the value of this statement, so I pass it to the last who modified the article. NOTE: I am italian and when I noted this in a talk page of the italian wiki, a greek-named user has deleted the suggestion. 151.29.59.56 (talk) 07:32, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Why the "Blue" Nile ?
Why is it called the Blue Nile ? Please would someone knowledgeable add the is information. Darkman101 (talk) 22:37, 22 October 2022 (UTC)