In the lush mountains of Burundi, 70 miles southeast of the bustling city of Bujumbura, lies the southernmost source of the Nile River—maybe. There are, in fact, many sources of the Nile. But this mountain stream in Burundi is likely the southernmost source of the river, which cuts a winding course through several countries before it empties into the Mediterranean. Also, it has a pyramid. At around 4,100 miles, the Nile is the world’s longest river. It has three main tributaries: the White Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara. In 1863, English explorer John Hanning Speke “settled” the question of the Nile’s source, claiming that the terminus was Lake Victoria. But many rivers flow into that reservoir, the two largest being the Nyabarongo River, which flows from Rwanda’s Mount Bigugu, and the Ruvyironza (later Ruvubu) River, which flows from Burundi’s Mount Kikizi. It was German explorer Burkhart Waldecker who tracked down this latter source. Waldecker identified the Burundi source on November 12, 1937. He had come to the Belgian Congo seeking asylum from Nazi persecution, and soon after became obsessed with finding the Nile’s source. It’s said that it took Waldecker four years to trace the nearly 4,350 miles between where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean and this source in Burundi. Both then and now, the Burundi source is only a tiny trickle of water flowing slowly down from a spring on Mount Kikizi. Nevertheless, when Waldecker located the source in Burundi, he erected a stela on the nearest mountaintop “to remind people of the glorious destiny of the river.” He later replaced that stela with a stone pyramid bearing a Latin inscription: “CAPUT NILI MERIDIANISSIMUM,” which roughly translates to “the southernmost head of the Nile.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi#Geography
