Geographers refer to northern Nubia as "Lower Nubia" and to southern Nubia as "Upper Nubia." The reason for this is because the Nile River in Nubia, unlike other rivers of the world, flows from the south to the north. So up the Nile is actually going south.
The Nubian section of the Nile contains six rock filled rapids called cataracts.
It was from the south that the original ancestors of the Egyptians, following the direction of the Nile River north, settled the land of Egypt. The Egyptians themselves recorded in their writings that their ancestors came from the south. The Edfu text is an inscription still found in the Temple of Horus at Edfu. It tells us that the origin of Egyptian civilization was taken from the south by a band of invaders led by King Horus.
The Nile River flows from Central Africa to the Mediterranean Sea some 4,000 miles.
