<P> This strange geography apparently came about because the Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together . The upper Niger, from the source west of Timbuktu to the bend in the current river near Timbuktu, once emptied into a now dry lake to the east northeast of Timbuktu, while the lower Niger started to the south of Timbuktu and flowed south into the Gulf of Guinea . Over time upstream erosion by the lower Niger resulted in stream capture of the upper Niger by the lower Niger . </P> <P> The northern part of the river, known as the Niger bend, is an important area because it is the major river and source of water in that part of the Sahara desert . This made it the focal point of trade across the western Sahara, and the centre of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao . </P> <P> The surrounding Niger River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the Sudan province, which in turn is part of the larger African massive physiographic division . </P> <P> The origin of the river's name remains unclear . What is clear is that "Niger" was an appellation applied in the Mediterranean world from at least the Classical era, when knowledge of the area by Europeans was slightly better than fable . A careful study of Classical writings on the interior of the Sahara begins with Ptolemy, who mentions two rivers in the desert: the "Gir" and farther south, the "Ni - Gir". The first has been since identified as the Wadi Ghir on the north western edge of the Tuat, along the borders of modern Morocco and Algeria . This would likely have been as far as Ptolemy would have had consistent records . The Ni - Ger was likely speculation, although the name stuck as that of a river south of the Mediterranean's "known world". Suetonius reports Romans traveling to the "Ger", although in reporting any river's name derived from a Berber language, in which "gher" means "watercourse", confusion could easily arise . Pliny connected these two rivers as one long watercourse which flowed (via lakes and underground sections) into the Nile, a notion which persisted in the Arab and European worlds--and further added the Senegal River as the "Ger"--until the 19th century . The connection to the Nile River was made not simply because this was then known as the great river of "Aethiopia" (by which all lands south of the desert were called by Classical writers), but because the Nile flooded every summer . In Europe and Western Asia, floods are expected in the Spring, following snow melt . Classical authors explained the summer flood by calculating the time it took for flood waters to move down a river, and calculating how long the Nile must have been for the waters to travel from a mountain range in the spring . However the cycle of the Nile is influenced by tropical rain patterns instead of by melting snow, a characteristic unknown to the Classical Mediterranean world . Through the descriptions of Leo Africanus and even Ibn Battuta--despite his visit to the river--the myth connecting the Niger to the Nile persisted . </P>

In which direction does the niger river flow