NileThe world's longest river, flowing north to the Mediterranean Sea.
White NileThe longer branch. It flows past Juba and through the Sudd.
Blue NileFlows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to Khartoum.
Atbara RiverRises in Ethiopia and joins the Nile in Sudan.
Sobat RiverA South Sudan river that joins the White Nile.
Victoria NileRuns from Lake Victoria through Lake Kyoga to Lake Albert.
Albert NileRuns from Lake Albert to the South Sudan border.
Lakes, swamp, desert and delta 9
Lake VictoriaAfrica's largest lake by area, where the Victoria Nile begins.
Lake KyogaA big, shallow Ugandan lake on the Victoria Nile.
Lake AlbertA lake shared by Uganda and the DR Congo.
SuddA huge South Sudan swamp that the White Nile forms.
Lake TanaEthiopia's largest lake, a Blue Nile source.
Ethiopian HighlandsA rugged mass of mountains, nicknamed the Roof of Africa.
Nubian DesertEastern Sahara desert between the Nile and the Red Sea.
Lake NasserA huge reservoir made by the Aswan High Dam.
Nile DeltaWhere the Nile fans out and empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
Cities and seas 7
CairoThe capital of Egypt, near the start of the Delta.
AswanA city in Upper Egypt just north of Aswan's dam.
KhartoumThe capital of Sudan, where the White and Blue Nile meet.
JubaThe capital of South Sudan, on the White Nile.
JinjaA city in Uganda on Lake Victoria, near the Nile's source.
Mediterranean SeaThe sea the Nile empties into.
Red SeaA sea between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
How this list was compiled: Names and outlines: Natural Earth 5.1.2 layers (credited under the drawing; they are the drawing, not a name source). Every name and detail line was read on 2026-10-01 in the opening of the feature's English Wikipedia article; the Victoria Nile and the Albert Nile are sections of the White Nile article, which names each stretch. Second source, official, read 2026-10-01: the Nile Basin Initiative, the partnership of the basin's governments (https://nilebasin.org/nile-basin), for the Nile as the world's longest river running through 11 countries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile as its two main tributaries, and the Sobat and the Atbara. Second source for the other names, a reference work, read 2026-10-01: the GeoNames gazetteer (https://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Victoria+Nile&country=UG and the same search for each name), which holds the Victoria Nile and the Albert Nile as sections of stream in Uganda, Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, Lake Kioga with Lake Kyoga as its other spelling, Lake Tana, Lake Nasser, As Sudd, the Nubian Desert, the Ethiopian Highlands, the Nile Delta, Cairo, Aswan, Khartoum, Juba and Jinja; and for the two seas the Marine Regions gazetteer of the Flanders Marine Institute, whose Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea records are sea areas of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (https://www.marineregions.org/rest/getGazetteerRecordsByName.json/Red%20Sea/). Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_geography_regions_polys (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_geography_regions_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_rivers_lake_centerlines (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_rivers_lake_centerlines.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_populated_places_simple (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_populated_places_simple.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 14.5°N 32.5°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This blank map of the Nile River follows the river from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea: the White Nile, the Blue Nile, the Atbara and the Sobat, five lakes, the Delta and five cities. No country border is drawn.
Read the full guide
Blank, numbered or named
The sheet opens blank: the river and its branches, the lakes, the shaded swamp, desert, highlands and delta, and five city dots, with nothing written on it. Numbered puts a number on each of the 23 places, and Named writes the names instead. Press Print this map; the answer key prints on a sheet of its own.
The river from south to north
The Victoria Nile leaves Lake Victoria near Jinja and runs through Lake Kyoga to Lake Albert. The Albert Nile carries on to South Sudan, where the White Nile passes Juba and the Sudd. At Khartoum the Blue Nile joins from Lake Tana, and the Nile flows north to Cairo and the Delta.
The Nile flows north, so the top of the map is downstream.
The Sobat joins the White Nile south of Khartoum; the Atbara joins the Nile north of it.
Questions and answers
Which countries does the Nile flow through?
The White Nile runs through Uganda and South Sudan, the Blue Nile through Ethiopia, and the two meet in Sudan. The Nile then crosses Sudan and Egypt. The Nile Basin Initiative counts 11 countries along the river and its basin.
Where does the Nile River start and end?
The White Nile starts near Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile near Lake Tana in Ethiopia. They meet at Khartoum, and the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea through the Nile Delta in Egypt.
Why are there no country borders on the map?
Some borders along the Nile are disputed, so the map draws none. The Nubian Desert's straight top edge is that region's limit in the map data. Cairo and Aswan are in Egypt, Khartoum in Sudan, Juba in South Sudan and Jinja in Uganda.
Are the cataracts of the Nile on the map?
No. The cataracts are not in the map data. Aswan, which stands at the first cataract, and the Nubian Desert, where the river passes most of the others, are both on the map.