by baldy

Created on: July 29, 2008   Last Updated: August 10, 2008

THE EARTH'S THREE LONGEST RIVERS

The longest rivers on Earth are not only enduring and silent witnesses to all of the 10,000 years of human civilization, but also survivors of the many millions of years of our planet's active geologic and climatologic past.

THE NILE RIVER

Africa's Nile River is the longest and most renowned of the world's rivers. It flows northward through arid regions of the dark continent for 4,145 miles from its mountainous, central African source- a Rwandan tributary of the famed Lake Victoria called the Kagera River, then continues through nine countries before emptying from Egypt into the southeastern Mediterranean Sea. Cartographers have given colorful names to broad sections of the Nile River: The Victoria Nile, between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert; the White Nile, as it is called in the Sudan; and, finally, the Nile River for its last 1,900 miles, after it joins with Ethiopia's Blue Nile at the city of Khartoum.

THE AMAZON RIVER

South America's Amazon River is the second longest river on the planet and flows west-to-east to the Atlantic Ocean for approximately 4,000 miles, most of which flows through Brazilian rainforests. Uncertainty surrounds the exact length of the massive river due to the fact that any of a number of Andean mountain tributaries in the west could be claimed as the ultimate source of the river.

The Amazon River serves as drainage for the northern half of South America, an area which receives 400 inches of rain each and every year. So tremendous is the volume of water carried by the Amazon River that this, the second longest river in the world, actually carries a greater volume of water than any other river. The river has such depth that ocean vessels have travelled two thirds of the way up the river from its mouth in eastern Brazil.

THE YANGTZE RIVER

China's Yangtze River is the world's third longest river. Estimates vary slightly from one cartographic source to another as to an exact number, but a length of 3,916 miles appears to be a commonly agreed upon estimate as it divides the country into north and south. The Yangtze begins in the western part of China, in the Kunlun Mountain Range, and flows its almost four thousand mile winding course to the East China Sea, near the city of Shanghai.

The origin for the name of the Yangtze River comes from a European misspelling and mispronunciation of the Chinese "Yangtzhou", a word used for the lower section of the river.

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