The water of the two rivers is very different in terms of taste and appearance. Neither is considered first class for drinking by residents of Khartoom, but after it has mingled well together, the mixture is deemed excellent.
-James Augustus Grant, A Walk Across Africa: Domestic Scenes from My Nile Journey, 1864
Grant was the first man known to drink from the White Nile both at its source and at the Muqran al-Nilayn, the Meeting of the Two Niles, the White and the Blue, while KhairAllah and I drank first at Khilaywah downriver from Old Dongola where, even if the water didn’t taste like mixed wine, it was cleaner than in Khartoum, where the city put more into it than took out.