Great Rivers of the World

River banks had been the cradles of civilizations. The rivers across the globe contribute to the local economies and transport apart from providing drinking and irrigation water and creating a sense of aesthetics attracting tourists and even the pilgrims in the countries like India.

Here is a brief introduction about the biggest rivers in the world.

Amazon River

• The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and by some definitions it is the longest.
• Amazon originates from or represents headwaters of Mantaro River on the Cordillera Rumi Cruz in Peru.
• The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the world, with an area of approximately 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi).
• The Amazon represents 20% of the global riverine discharge to the ocean.
• Manaus, Brazil is the largest city on Amazon.
• The Amazon River is disputed longest river in the world (Brazilian government claims it to be longer than the Nile, while every other nation claims that the Nile is the longest River in the world).

Brahamaputra River

• The Brahmaputra is a major trans-boundary Asian river, which flows through China, India and Bangladesh.
• It is the ninth largest river in the world by discharge, and the 15th longest. About 2,899.9 km (1,801.9 mi) long, the Brahmaputra is an important river for irrigation and transportation.
• The basin, especially south of Tibet, is characterized by high levels of rainfall. Kanchenjunga (8,586 m) is the only peak above 8,000 m, hence is the highest point within the Brahmaputra basin.
• It is called by different names in different regions. In Assam it is called  Brohmoputro noi (‘nodi “river”), and yar klung gtsang po Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan language. It is also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra (when referring to the whole river including the stretch within Tibet).
• It originates from the Manasarovar Lake region, located on the northern side of the Himalayas in Burang County of Tibet and known as the Yarlung Tsangpo River.
• The river flows across southern Tibet to break through the Himalayas in great gorges (including the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon) and into Arunachal Pradesh (India).
• It flows southwest through the Assam Valley as Brahmaputra and south through Bangladesh as the Jamuna. In the vast Ganges Delta, it merges with the Padma, the popular name of the river Ganges in Bangladesh, and finally the Meghna and from here it is known as Meghna before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
• The Manas River, which runs through Bhutan, joins it at Jogighopa, in India.

Ganges River

• The Ganges flows through the nations of India and Bangladesh.
• The 2,525 km (1,569 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India.
• After entering West Bengal, it divides into two rivers: the Hooghly and the Padma River.
• The Hooghly, or Adi Ganga, flows through several districts of West Bengal and into the Bay of Bengal near Sagar Island. The other, the Padma, also flows into and through Bangladesh, and joins the Meghna river which ultimately empties into the Bay of Bengal.
• The Ganges is highly polluted. Pollution threatens not only humans, but also more than 140 fish species, 90 amphibian species and the endangered Ganges river dolphin. The Ganges is a major source of global ocean plastic pollution. The levels of fecal coliform bacteria from human waste in the waters of the river near Varanasi are more than 100 times the Indian government’s official limit.
• The Ganga Action Plan, an environmental initiative to clean up the river is going on but much remains to be done as the programme has not yielded desired results.

The Indus River

• The Indus River (locally called Sindhu) is one of the longest rivers in Asia. Beginning in a mountain spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas, the river supports ecosystems of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside.
• It originates in the Tibetan Plateau in the vicinity of Lake Manasarovar.
• The river runs a course through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, towards the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan and the Hindukush ranges, and then flows in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan to merge into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh.
• The river has a total drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2 (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow stands at around 243 km3(58 cu mi), twice that of the Nile River and three times that of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers combined, making it one of the largest rivers in the world in terms of annual flow.
• The Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left bank tributary is the Panjnad which itself has five major tributaries, namely, the Chenab, Jhelum, the Ravi, the Beas, and the Sutlej.
• Its principal right bank tributaries are the Shyok, the Gilgit, the Kabul, the Gomal, and the Kurram.
• It is the longest river and national river of Pakistan.

The Yellow River or Huang He

• Yellow River or Huang He is the second longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).
• It originates in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China and flows through nine provinces, and it eventually empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province.
• Considered as the birth place of ancient Chinese civilization and most prosperous region in early Chinese history, the Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km (680 mi) with a drainage area of about 752,546 square kilometers (290,560 sq mi).
• It is also known as the “shock of China” due to its frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed, sometimes above the level of its surrounding farm fields.

Volga

• The Volga  is the longest river in Europe with a catchment area of 1,350,000 square kilometres.
• It is also Europe’s largest river in terms of discharge and drainage basin.
• The river flows through central Russia and into the Caspian Sea, and is widely regarded as the national river of Russia.
• Eleven of the twenty largest cities of Russia, including the capital, Moscow, are located in the Volga’s drainage basin.
• Rising in the Valdai Hills 225 meters (738 ft) above sea level northwest of Moscow and about 320 kilometers (200 mi) southeast of Saint Petersburg, the Volga heads east past Lake Sterzh, Tver, Dubna, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan and moving further it discharges into the Caspian Sea below Astrakhan at 28 meters (92 ft) below sea level.
• At its most strategic point, it bends toward the Don (“the big bend”). Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is located there.
• The fertile river valley provides large quantities of wheat, and also has many mineral riches.
• A substantial petroleum industry centers on the Volga valley. Other resources include natural gas, salt, and potash. The Volga Delta and the nearby Caspian Sea offer superb fishing grounds. Astrakhan, at the delta, is the center of the caviar industry.

The Danube River

• The Danube is Europe’s second longest river, after the Volga.
• It is located in Central and Eastern Europe.
• The Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world.
• The river originates in Germany and passes through or touches the boarders of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before draining into the Black Sea.
• Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries.
• The Danube river basin is home to fish species such as pike, zander, huchen, Wels catfish, burbot and tench. It is also home to a large diversity of carp and sturgeon, as well as salmon and trout.
• A few species of euryhaline fish, such as European seabass, mullet, and eel, inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion of the river.
• Since ancient times, the Danube has become a traditional trade route in Europe, nowadays 2,415 km (1,501 mi) of its total length being navigable. The river is also an important source of energy and drinking water.

Rhine River

• The Rhine is one of the major European rivers, the second-longest in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube) at about 1,230 km (760 mi),with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s (100,000 cu ft/s).
• It originates in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German and then the Franco-German border, then flows through the German Rhineland and the Netherlands and eventually empties into the North Sea.
• The largest city on the Rhine is Cologne, Germany, with a population of more than 1,050,000 people. Besides there are some other well known cities on the banks of the Rhine including Dusseldorf (Germany), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Strasbourg (France) and Basel (Switzerland).
• The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital and navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland.
• Its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire is supported by the many castles and fortifications built along it. In the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism.

The Kama

• The Kama is a river 1,805 kilometres (1,122 mi) long in Russia. It is the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one in discharge.
• At their confluence, in fact, the Kama is even larger than the Volga.
• It starts in the Udmurt Republic, near Kuliga, flowing northwest for 200 kilometres (120 mi), turning northeast near Loyno for another 200 kilometres (120 mi), then turning south and west in Perm Krai, flowing again through the Udmurt Republic and then through the Republic of Tatarstan, where it meets the Volga.

The Moskva River

• The Moskva River  is a river of western Russia.
• It rises about 140 km (90 mi) west of Moscow, and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through central Moscow.
• About 110 km (70 mi) south east of Moscow, at the city of Kolomna, it flows into the Oka River, itself a tributary of the Volga, which ultimately flows into the Caspian Sea.
• The river is 503 km (313 mi) long, with a vertical drop of 155 m (509 ft) (long-term average.
• In Moscow, the river freezes occasionally; during an unusually warm winter in 2006–2007, ice began melting on January 25.

The Seine

• The Seine  is a 777-kilometre-long (483 mi) river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France.
• It rises at Source-Seine, 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre (and Honfleur on the left bank).
• It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 120 kilometres (75 mi) from the sea. Over 60 percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by commercial riverboats, and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in Paris, lined with top monuments including Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum and Musée d’Orsay.

Tigris River

• The Tigris is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates.
• The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq and empties into the Persian Gulf.
• The Tigris is 1,750 km long, rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey about 25 km southeast of the city of Elazig and about 30 km from the headwaters of the Euphrates. The river then flows for 400 km through Turkish territory before becoming the border between Syria and Turkey. This stretch of 44 km is the only part of the river that is located in Syria.
• Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris.
• The port city of Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab.
• In ancient times, many of the great cities of Mesopotamia stood on or near the Tigris, drawing water from it to irrigate the civilization of the Sumerians.
• Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by the Tigris via a canal dug around 2900 B.C.

Potomac River

• The Potomac River is located within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands into the Chesapeake Bay.
• The river (main stem and North Branch) is approximately 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles (38,000 km2). In terms of area, this makes the Potomac River the fourth largest river along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the 21st largest in the United States.
• Over 5 million people live within the Potomac watershed.
• The river forms part of the borders between Maryland and Washington, D.C., on the left descending bank and West Virginia and Virginia on the river’s right descending bank.
• The majority of the lower Potomac River is part of Maryland. Exceptions include a small tidal portion within the District of Columbia, and the border with Virginia being delineated from “point to point” (thus various bays and shoreline indentations lie in Virginia).

Hudson River

• The river is named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609, and after whom Hudson Bay in Canada is also named.
• The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York in the United States.
• The river originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the Upper New York Bay between New York City and Jersey City.
• It eventually drains into the Atlantic Ocean at New York Harbor.
• The river serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York at its southern end. Further north, it marks local boundaries between several New York counties.
• The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet which formed during the most recent period of North American glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago.
• Tidal waters influence the Hudson’s flow from as far north as the city of Troy.

Nile River

• The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa, and is the longest river in the world and in Africa. However Brazil claims that the Amazon River is longer than the Nile.
• The Nile, which is about 6,650 km (4,130 mi) long, is an “international” river as its drainage basin covers eleven countries, namely, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Republic of the Sudan and Egypt.
• The river Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile.
• The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself. The Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source still undetermined but located in either Rwanda or Burundi. It flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast.
• The two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta and flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
• The Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan.
• Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along river banks.

Congo River

• The great Congo River, formerly known as the Zaire River under the Mobutu regime, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge volume, following only the Amazon.
• The Congo Basin has a total area of about 4,000,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi), or 13% of the entire African landmass.
• The Congo-Lualaba-Chambeshi River system has an overall length of 4,700 km (2,920 mi), which makes it the world’s ninth-longest river.
• The Chambeshi is a tributary of the Lualaba River, and Lualaba is the name of the Congo River upstream of Boyoma Falls, extending for 1,800 km (1,120 mi).
• It is also the world’s deepest recorded river, with measured depths in excess of 220 m (720 ft).
• It is the only river to cross the equator twice.

The Niger River

• The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River (also known as the Zaïre River). Its main tributary is the Benue River. The Niger River is a relatively “clear” river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Niger’s headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt.
• It  is the principal river of West Africa, extending about 4,180 km (2,600 mi). Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km2 (817,600 sq mi) in area.
• Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea.
• It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta or the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly; this begins in September, peaks in November, and finishes by May.
• The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled geographers for two centuries. Its source is just 240 km (150 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs directly away from the sea into the Sahara Desert, then takes a sharp right turn near the ancient city of Timbuktu (Tombouctou) and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea.
• An unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta, which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases. The result is a region of braided streams, marshes, and lakes the size of Belgium; the seasonal floods make the Delta extremely productive for both fishing and agriculture.