Burundi: Source of the Nile
For centuries the European explorers were obsessed with finding the source of the Nile, the longest river in the world. The German explorer Burkhart Waldecker tracked the Nile for 4,350 mile in 1930s from its delta in the Mediterranean up to Ethiopia and Sudan, then to Lake Victoria, and the upriver through Burundi tiny trickle of water flowing down from a spring on Mount Kikizi. This is now the officially recognized source of the mighty Nile, (although all the neighboring countries continue to claim they have their own). When Waldecker located the source in Burundi, he erected a stone pyramid bearing a Latin inscription: “CAPUT NILI MERIDIANISSIMUM,” which translates into “the southernmost head of the Nile.” Just beneath the pyramid, there is the actual spring, with cold drinkable water.
