Source of the Nile: Lake Victoria and Ripon Falls
Fuentes del Nilo: lago Victoria y cataratas Ripon
- Date
- 1858-1862 · confidence high
- Place
- Ripon Falls, Jinja, Uganda
- Credited to
- John Hanning Speke (1858, 1862); Richard Burton; confirmed by Henry Morton Stanley (1875)
- People
- 👤 John Hanning Speke1827–1864👤 Richard Francis Burton1821–1890
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Speke identified Lake Victoria as the source of the White Nile and in 1862 located its outlet at the Ripon Falls. The dispute with Burton, who favoured Lake Tanganyika, ended with Stanley's circumnavigation of the lake.
Coordinates of the Ripon Falls (now under the reservoir). Priority disputed between Speke and Burton; the more remote sources (Nyungwe, Rwanda; Kagera) are still debated. The Baganda and Basoga peoples knew the lake (Nalubaale) perfectly well.
What it led to
- The Scramble for Africa and British colonisation of Uganda
- The Owen Falls Dam (1954), which submerged the falls
- Resolution of a geographical question posed since Herodotus
Built on
- European arrival at Lake Tanganyika13 de febrero de 1858
- Burton and Speke's expedition to Lake Tanganyika
- Bruce's explorations (Blue Nile, 1770)
Made possible
- The Nile's most distant source (Kagera: Burundi or Rwanda)1934-2006 (disputa)
- Mapping of the African Great Lakes