Editing Nile (section)

=== Ancient Niles ===
The existing Nile has five earlier phases:
*i) the Upper Miocenian Eonile, of about 6 million years [[Before Present|BP]];<ref name="Rushdi Said">{{Cite book |last=Said |first=Rushdi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ekjgBAAAQBAJ&q=Nile |title=The River Nile Geology, Hydrology and Utilization |date=22 October 2013 |publisher=Elsevier Science |isbn=9781483287683 |edition=22 October 2013 |publication-date=1993 |page=1 |format=Ebook |author-link=Rushdi Said |access-date=23 May 2021 |archive-date=30 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530130718/https://books.google.com/books?id=ekjgBAAAQBAJ&q=Nile |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Said 3 x 3" />
*ii) the Upper Pliocenian Paleonile, commencing about 3.32 million years BP, and during the [[Pleistocene]];
*iii) The Nile phases, including the Proto-Nile, commencing about 600,000 years BP;
*iv) Pre-Nile;<ref name="Said/chapter/10.1007"/>
*v) transitioning at about 400,000 years BP to the Neo-Nile.<ref name="Rushdi Said" /><ref name="Said/chapter/10.1007">{{Cite book |last=Said |first=R |title=The Nile, Biology of an Ancient River |publisher=Springer |year=1976 |isbn=978-94-010-1563-9 |editor-last=Rzóska |editor-first=J. |series=Monographiae Biologicae |volume=29 |location=Dordrecht |publication-date=1976 |page=2 |chapter=The Geological Evolution of the River Nile in Egypt |doi=10.1007/978-94-010-1563-9_1 |access-date=23 May 2021 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-010-1563-9_1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210523173149/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-010-1563-9_1%23citeas |archive-date=23 May 2021 |via=[[Microsoft Academic]] }}</ref>
Flowing north from the Ethiopian Highlands, [[satellite imagery]] was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. A canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents the '''Eonile''' that flowed during 23–5.3&nbsp;million years before present. The Eonile transported [[Clastic rock|clastic sediments]] to the Mediterranean; several natural gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.

During the late-[[Miocene]] [[Messinian salinity crisis]], when the Mediterranean Sea was a [[Endorheic basin|closed basin]] and evaporated to the point of being empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred metres below world ocean level at Aswan and {{cvt|2400|m|sp=us|sigfig=2}} below Cairo.<ref name="Warren2006">{{Cite book |last=Warren |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/evaporitessedime0000warr |title=Evaporites: Sediments, Resources and Hydrocarbons |publisher=Springer |year=2006 |isbn=3-540-26011-0 |location=Berlin |page=[https://archive.org/details/evaporitessedime0000warr/page/352 352] |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name="Mahmoudi2008">{{Cite journal |last1=El Mahmoudi |first1=A. |last2=Gabr |first2=A. |year=2008 |title=Geophysical surveys to investigate the relation between the Quaternary Nile channels and the Messinian Nile canyon at East Nile Delta, Egypt |journal=Arabian Journal of Geosciences |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=53–67 |doi=10.1007/s12517-008-0018-9 |issn=1866-7511 |s2cid=128432827 }}</ref> This created a very long and deep canyon which was filled with sediment after the Mediterranean was recreated.<ref name="Embabi2018">{{Cite book |last=Embabi |first=N.S. |title=Landscapes and Landforms of Egypt |year=2018 |isbn=978-3-319-65659-5 |series=World Geomorphological Landscapes |pages=39–45 |chapter=Remarkable Events in the Life of the River Nile |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-65661-8_4 |issn=1866-7538 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-65661-8 |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204215026/https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-65661-8 |url-status=live }}</ref> At some point the sediments raised the riverbed sufficiently for the river to overflow westward into a depression to create [[Lake Moeris]].

[[Lake Tanganyika]] drained northwards into the Nile until the [[Virunga Mountains|Virunga Volcanoes]] blocked its course in Rwanda. The Nile was much longer at that time, with its furthest headwaters in northern Zambia. The currently existing Nile first flowed during the former parts of the [[Würm glaciation]] period.<ref name="Said 3 x 3" />

[[Affad 23]] is an [[archaeological site]] located in alluvial deposits formed by an ancient channel of the Nile in the [[Affad]] region of southern [[Dongola Reach]], Sudan.<ref name="Osypiński">{{cite journal |last1=Osypiński |first1=Piotr |last2=Osypińska |first2=Marta |last3=Gautier |first3=Achilles |title=Affad 23, a Late Middle Palaeolithic Site With Refitted Lithics and Animal Remains in the Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |date=2011 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=177–188 |doi=10.3213/2191-5784-10186 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135549 |issn=1612-1651 |oclc=7787802958 |jstor=43135549 |s2cid=161078189 |access-date=12 September 2023 |archive-date=1 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801080857/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135549 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>