Tammy Seadler, age 9, of Louisville, Kentucky, for her question:

Who discovered the Nile River?

People discovered the Nile at least 7,000 years ago. At least they discovered the rich farm land around its delta and along miles of its muddy banks. Naturally they settled there and started farming that rich land. But this was long before they had learned to record the things they did. In fact, maybe they didn't think that the discovery of the great river was important. It probably seemed quite natural to them. However, ages later, the inhabitants by the Nile had time to think about it. They wondered how long it was and where it began.

Around 3,000 years ago, their wise men guessed the great river bega* !,n the Mountains of the Moon, far to the south. They never went thert and they did not know that the Nile is the longest river in the world. Nor did they know that the people who lived deep in Central Africa had lived and prospered by it ages ago, It seems then that the Nile River was discovered by different people thousands of years ago.