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The Mountains of the Moon or Montes Lunae was a mountain range in central Africa that were long believed to be the source of the White Nile. The ancient world had long been curious as to the source of the Nile, especially Ancient Greek geographers. A number of expeditions down the Nile failed to find the source.
Eventually a merchant named Diogenes reported that he has traveled inland from East Africa for twenty-five days and had found the source of Nile. He reported it flowed from a group of massive mountains into a series of large lakes. He reported the natives called this range the Mountains of the Moon because of their snowcapped whiteness.
These reports were taken as true by Ptolemy and other Greek and Roman geographers. Late Arab geographers, despite far more knowledge of Africa also accepted the notion.
It was not until the nineteenth century when Europeans resumed the search for the source of the Nile. James Bruce and John Speke in 1862 found that the source was not primarily in the mountains but rather in the Great Lakes. Henry Morton Stanley finally found the mist surrounded mountains in 1889. Today known as the Ruwenzori Range the peaks are the source of some of the Nile's waters, but only a small fraction. It is uncertain if these were the Mountains of the Moon described by Diogenes or if his reports were wholly fabricated.
For mountains on the Moon see list of mountains on the Moon.
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