Ripon Falls at the northern end of Lake Victoria in Uganda is often considered the source of the river Nile. In 1862–3 John Hanning Speke was the first European to follow the course of the Nile downstream after discovering the falls that his intuition had marked as the source of the Nile.
The water from Ripon Falls falls into a narrow opening and that is where some people believe the River Nile starts.
He named the falls after George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon.
The Falls functioned as a natural outlet for Lake Victoria, until in 1954 the construction of Owen Falls Dam was completed, effectively extending Lake Victoria and submerging Ripon Falls.
Famous quotes containing the word falls:
“Industriousness and conscientiousness are often at odds, because industriousness wants to pick the still sour fruit from the tree, while conscientiousness lets it hang there too long, until it falls and bruises.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)