"Egypt is the gift of the Nile," said the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, summarizing the river's significance to the Egyptians. "Without it they would be like the people of Troy - defeated even before they fought a battle." Herodotus was born around 484 B.C. in Halicarnassus, now in Turkey. He traveled across Egypt with his teacher Histiaeus and wrote an account of their journey for which it is named. The book contains details about many things including the Nile and its importance to Egypt. He described the Nile as being the largest river in Africa and said that it was so wide that boats could travel down most of its course from Aswan to Alexandria without landing. The Nile flows through eleven countries before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria. It is one of the world's longest rivers and the only one that is not located in a country. Some estimates say that the Nile drains about 250,000 square miles of territory but it can flood much more land than this. The amount of water it carries is also very large. The annual average flow of the Nile at Cairo is about 30 feet (10 meters) but during major floods it can reach over 52 feet (16 meters).