Nature is very diverse and amazing.You can argue for hours about what kind of man-made attractions are better, but with certainty one thing: the wonders of nature are always more beautiful. Today we will talk about the water arteries of our planet, try to figure out which river is longer: the Amazon or the Nile. Or maybe the title is the longest in the world is some other?
Eternal dispute: Amazon or Nile
A person has always been interested in what mountainthe peaks are the highest on the planet, which lake has the largest area, what is the largest desert. Now we will try to figure out which river is longer. Amazon or the Nile? These are the two options over which scientists have struggled in recent years. Until recently, in the first place stood the sacred Nile, which carries its waters from the depths of Africa through the sands of the Sahara. The South American river is recognized as the deepest, but along the length it was placed on another place. But a recent expedition of Brazilian scientists found that the length of the Amazon is greater. It is 6,800 kilometers, and the river itself starts in the north of Peru, and not in the south, as was previously thought. At that time, the length of the Nile is 6695 kilometers. The main thing in measuring rivers is the exact definition of the source, because the length, depending on it, can vary.
Natural record holders
So, with the first two record holders, we alreadyhave decided. True, whether the Nile or the Amazon is longer, the controversy will continue for a long time. But the names of other rivers that are the greatest in the world are known:
- Yangtze River - the river is not only one of the longest (third place, 6300 kilometers) on the planet, but also ranks third in the fullness.
- Jefferson, Missouri and Mississippi create the longest river system in the world with a total length of 6,300 kilometers.
- The Yellow River (Yellow River) carries its waters along a distance of 5,464 kilometers and flows into the sea with a powerful jet, and the washed rock color waves not only of the river, but also of the sea.
- The Ob is the longest river in Russia. Its length is 3650 km, and along with the Irtysh tributary - 4248 km.
- Congo is the main waterwayCentral Africa. And the river takes the second place in the fullness after the Amazon and the first place in depth. It crosses the equator twice, and its length is 4,700 kilometers.
- The Mekong carries its waters through China and Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. The length of the river with a very developed delta is 4,500 kilometers.
- Lena. The most beautiful river in the northeast of Siberia carries its waters through Yakutia and the Irkutsk region. Its length is 4480 kilometers, the width in some places is 5-7 km, and in some places is 20-30.
- Niger, located in West Africa. The river begins in Guinea and carries its waters through the territories of the Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Benin. Its length is 4180 kilometers.
Amazing Amazon: the origin of the name
So, which river is longer, Amazon or Nile, wealready found out. Now let's talk about it, an absolute record holder, an amazing waterway. Discovered her conquistadors during the search for the fabulous golden country of Eldorado. They also gave her the name, having met Indians with long hair and having believed, what is it the legendary women-soldiers described by ancient Greeks. According to another version, the European invaders were amazed that Aboriginal women fought along with men, fiercely resisting the aliens.
Queen of the Rivers and its features
This is the name given to the Amazon tribesIndians, long lived on the shores. In their language, this sounds like Parana Tingo. It takes out one fourth of all the waters to the World Ocean, and this stream descends the Atlantic Ocean four hundred kilometers from the mouth!
The mouth of the river form three big and huge armsnumber of small. It lost the picturesque islands of Mexico, Maraya, Kavian. Amazon boasts more than two hundred tributaries, many of which are deep and navigable. During a wet season in the tropics, a large amount of rain falls, so the river spills to an incredible size, and the water level in it rises by ten to fifteen meters. The banks are covered with a virgin forest, in which a unique fauna lives. In the Amazon itself, there are various fish, caimans, turtles, dolphins, feather-hand, manatees.
Multicolored flow
Amazon sweeps a powerful, bubbling stream,washing out from the bottom of the silt, which stains its waters in white. Its influx, Rio Negro, on the contrary, is very clean and transparent, and the waves in it have a practically black tint (hence the name - the Black River). In a place where they merge together, one can observe an interesting and unique phenomenon: water flows in a two-color stream from the city of Manaus to the mouth along the fifteen kilometers of the shore.
Amazon's Amazing People
Because the Amazon is unique and amazingthe river, the inhabitants of its basin are also unusual. Two and a half thousand kinds of fish (including the famous piranha with sharp teeth, and giant arapaim, and electric rays, and river sharks), huge anacondas, the largest rodents of capybar, monkey-howler, tiny hummingbirds - that's just a short list of representatives of the fauna Amazonia.
The vegetable world is not less rich:slender palms and unique fruit trees, cinchona, hevea tangled lianas, able to withstand an adult. On the watery surface, the Victoria Regia is dissolved - a water lily with one-and-a-half-meter leaves. It's not for nothing that this part of the world is called the "green lungs of the planet". It's a pity that the man and his management every day reflects on the state of the natural miracle. Trees are cut down, rare species of flora and fauna are rapidly dying out.
The Holy Nile
So, no one doubts that,Which river is longer: Amazon or Nile. But although the South American took the palm from the African, he did not become worse from this. The Nile is the main property of the mainland, its main waterway, the cradle of the ancient civilization and the source of life in the desert. The source of the sacred river is located on the East African plateau, and it flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Neal does not have as many tributaries as the Amazon. These are Bahr al-Ghazal, Sobat, Blue Nile, Achva, Atbara. But they are all located in the first half of the length of the river, and the last three thousand kilometers the Nile carries its waters along the semi-desert, without any tributaries.
In the area of Lake Victoria, the Nile pierces its waythrough the rocks, forming dangerous rapids and picturesque waterfalls. The delta of the African giant is huge. Its area is approximately equal to the area of the Crimean peninsula, and the river flows into the sea, dividing into several powerful branches. The Nile is navigable, and a cruise on it will give the most positive emotions.
Instead of an epilogue
So which river is longer? It is worth forgetting what was taught in schools: not the Nile, on the banks of which the pyramids rise, but the amazing Amazon, a river, which has no analogs!
