Determining the longest rivers of the world can prove challenging as the primary river’s sources needs to be identified and their many tributaries need to be considered.
Many times, river sources are simply temporary seasonal streams or some of the river’s tributaries are dry. This adds to the challenge of recording the lenght of rivers and is what causes many times lenght approximazations. Below are listed in order, the 10 longest rivers of the world.
THE NILE RIVER- Africa
The Nile, anciently known as “Neilous” the Greek word for River Valley, is claimed to be the longest river of the world. Flowing for about 4,135 feet the Nile originates in Burundi just south of the Equator, then crosses Egypt and ultimately pours into the Mediterranean sea.
Because of the fertile soil found along the banks of the Nile, the early Egyptian civilization was able to expand and greatly benefit from its presence. Nowadays, the Nile is a great source of water, allowing farming in areas affected by superbly high tempertures.
THE AMAZON RIVER- South America
Not too far behind, the Amazon River ranks second with its 3,980 feet which at times has competed pretty closely with the Nile’s river lenght. Located in South America, the Amazon river crosses many different countries such as Venezuela, Peru’, Bolivia, Columbia, Equador and Brazil.
While the Amazon river may not win in lenght, it certaintly ranks first as the largest river of the world. It has been confirmed that the Amazon River carries the largest amount of water to the sea. This may be due to the heavy downpours occurring in the many Amazzonian rainforests.
The river is also very wide, as a matter of fact you will never see a bridge over the Amazon River. Due to it’s size, the Amazon river is often referred as: The River Sea.
THE YANGTZE RIVER- Asia
Third ranked comes the Yangske river also known as “Chang Jiang” meaning long river. It is a very long river indeed measuring approximately 3,917 miles and having about 700 tributaries.
It’s water has helped populations near its banks to grow rice and irrigate their extensive wheat fields.
A large dam has been under construction since 1995 and should be finished by 2009. The dam which will be called the “Three Gorges Dam” will control flooding and be the largest source of hydro-electricity of the world. While this will provide many benefits, there is still a lot of controversy on it’s construction as it is estimated that it will destroy over 80,000 acres, many villages, factories and may ultimately cause many animals to become extinct.
These are the top three longest rivers recorded. The list of long rivers may go on and on as there are several throughout the world. Due to this, we will list only the top seven.
Listed below are the remaining seven:
Missisipi Missouri United States 3902 miles
Yenisei Angara Selenga Russia 3445 miles
Yellow China 3398 miles
Ob Irtysh Russia 3364 miles
Amur Asia 2744 miles
Lena Russia 2734 miles
Congo Africa 2718 miles
Once again, rivers lenghts can only be approximated due to seasonal changes or other causes.
There were times where actually the Amazon river seemed to beat in lenght the Nile.
As of present, these are the lenghts recorded, however, we must keep in mind that there may still be debates over actual lenghts and conflicting informatin may still derive.
As most things in nature, changes seem to always occur preventing us humans from getting too accustomed to our surroundings and preventing us humans from taking nature for granted.
