However, the Nile had a different course back then. Instead of flowing into the Mediterranean Sea near the Nile Delta in Northern Egypt, the Nile continued into a valley and turned into lakes when it went westward to the South of Crete. The river flowed through Sicily and Malta, South of Sardinia and then went onto the Atlantic at Gibraltar. This huge valley along with the Sahara (which was a vast fertile land back then) was known in the ancient times as Osirian Civilization.