The Nile River flows northward from sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. The river’s main tributaries—the White Nile starting near Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile rising in Ethiopia—converge at Khartoum, after which the combined Nile runs north through Sudan and Egypt to the Nile Delta and into the Mediterranean. This northward flow is driven by elevation: the sources are at higher elevations in the south, and the river descends toward sea level as it moves north.