The Sudd - Vast Swamp of White Nile Sudan
The Sudd, a fast expanse of bogs and swamps, has inhibited the travel along the Nile for centuries. The Nile forms the Sudd because it enters a land of almost absolute flatness. The average slope from south to north along 400km of the Sudd is only 0.01%. The water has no real gradient to follow and no defined basin to pool into like in the Lakes of Albert, Edward, and Victoria.
It is located in southern Sudan and hinders travel along the White Nile. Explorers dating back even to the Romans who were trying to find the source of the Nile found a hard and almost always insurmountable barrier in the Sudd. The Sudd is thick with reeds, grasses, water hyacinth, and other water loving plants. These can form massive blocks of vegetation that can shift position and block navigable channels creating an ever-changing network of water.
Sometimes there is no channel a boat can travel on that will lead through the bog. Boats carry saws and chains to clear the floating islands of plants from the channel when the way through the area becomes lost.
