2. ď¨ A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater,
flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another
river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the
ground or dries up completely before reaching another
body of water. Small rivers may also be called by
several other names, including stream, creek, brook,
rivulet, tributary and rill. There are no official
definitions for generic terms, such as river, as applied
to geographic features, although in some countries or
communities a stream may be defined by its size. Many
names for small rivers are specific to geographic
location; one example is "burn" in Scotland and
northeast England. Sometimes a river is said to be
larger than a creek, but this is not always the case,
because of vagueness in the language.
3. ď¨ The Nile is a major north-flowing river in
northeastern Africa, generally regarded as the
longest river in the world. It is 6,650 km (4,130
miles) long. It runs through the ten countries of
Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania,
Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.
ď¨ The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile
and Blue Nile. 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 is the source of
most of the water and fertile soil. It begins at Lake
Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the
southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese
capital of Khartoum.
4. ď¨ The Po is a river that flows either 652 km
or 682 kmâ considering the length of the
Maira, a right bank tributary â eastward
across northern Italy, from a spring
seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del
Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po
under the northwest face of Monviso
through a delta projecting into the
Adriatic Sea near Venice. It has a
drainage area of 74,000 km² in all, 70,000
in Italy, of which 41,000 is in mountain
environments and 29,000 on the plain.
The Po is the longest river in Italy; at its
widest point its width is 503 m .The Po
extends along the 45th parallel north.
5. ď¨ The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the
Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406
kilometres through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
It drains a basin estimated at 17,375 square kilometres .The
river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of
the city of Rome, founded on its eastern banks.
ď¨ The river rises at Mount Fumaiolo in central Italy and flows
in a generally southerly direction past Perugia and Rome to
meet the sea at Ostia. Popularly called flavus , in reference
to the yellowish colour of its water, the Tiber has heavily
advanced at the mouth by about 3 km since Roman times,
leaving the ancient port of Ostia Antica 6 km
inland.[However, it does not form a proportional delta,
owing to a strong north-flowing sea current close to the
shore, to the steep shelving of the coast, and to slow tectonic
subsidence.
6. ď¨ Segura is a medium-sized river in
southeastern Spain.
ď¨ It starts at Santiago Pontones passes
Calasparra, Cieza, Murcia, BeniajĂĄn, Orihuela,
Rojales and ends in the Mediterranean Sea
near Guardamar del Segura in the province of
Alicante. Some of its tributaries are the
Mundo the AlhĂĄrabe the Mula and the
GuadalentĂn.
ď¨ The Segura is usually in a state of semi-
permanent drought, however, now and then,
it does occasionally flood as the consequence
of the torrential rains which typically take
place once every 6â9 years approximately,
always in Autumn.
7. ď¨ The Ebro or Ebre is one of the most
important rivers in the Iberian
Peninsula. It is the biggest river by
discharge volume in Spain. Its source is
in Fontibre, from the Latin words
Fontes Iberis, source of the Ebro. The
upper Ebro rushes through rocky
gorges in Burgos Province. Flowing
roughly eastwards it begins forming a
wider river valley when it reaches
Navarre and La Rioja thanks to many
tributaries flowing down from the
Iberian System on one side, and the
Navarre mountains and the western
Pyrenees, on the other.
8. ď¨ The Rhine is a river that flows from Grisons in the eastern
Swiss Alps to the North Sea coast in the Netherlands and is
one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at
about 1,233 km ,with an average discharge of more than
2,000 m3/s. 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. It has also
served as a defensive feature and has been the basis for
regional and international borders. The many castles and
prehistoric fortifications along the Rhine testify to its
importance as a waterway. River traffic could be stopped at
these locations, usually for the purpose of collecting tolls, by
the state that controlled that portion of the river.
9. ď¨ The Rhone is one of the major rivers of
Europe, rising in Switzerland and running
from there through southeastern France. At
Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean
Sea, the river divides into two branches,
known as the Great Rhone and the Little
Rhone . The resulting delta constitutes the
Camargue region.
ď¨ In French, the adjective derived from the river
is rhodanien, as in le sillon rhodanien ,which
is the name of the long, straight Saone and
Rhone river valleys, a deep cleft running due
south to the Mediterranean and separating the
Alps from the Massif Central.
10. ď¨ The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian
Peninsula. It is 1,038 km long, 716 km in Spain,
47 km along the border between Portugal and
Spain and 275 km in Portugal, where it
empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon. It
drains an area of 80,100 square kilometers The
Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course.
Several dams and diversions supply drinking
water to most of central Spain, including
Madrid, and Portugal, while dozens of
hydroelectric stations create power. Between
dams it follows a very constricted course, but
after Almourol it enters a vast alluvial valley
prone to flooding. At its mouth is a large
estuary on which the port city of Lisbon is
situated.
11. ď¨ The Guadalquivir is the fifth longest river in the
Iberian peninsula and the second longest river with
its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is 657
km long and drains an area of about 58,000 square
km. It begins at Canada de las Fuentes in the
Cazorla mountain range ,passes through CĂłrdoba
and Seville and ends at the fishing village of
Bonanza, in Sanlucar de Barrameda, flowing into
the Gulf of Cadiz, in the Atlantic Ocean. The
marshy lowlands at the river's end are known as
Las Marisma. It borders Donana National Park
reserve.
ď¨ The Guadalquivir river is the only great navigable
river in Spain. Currently it is navigable to Seville,
but in Roman times it was navigable to CĂłrdoba.
12. ď¨ The Jordan River or River Jordan
(Hebrew: is a 251 kilometres long
river in West Asia flowing to the Dead
Sea. Currently, the river serves as the
eastern border of the State of Israel and
of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In Christian tradition, Jesus was
baptised in it by John the Baptist. The
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan takes its
name from this river.
13. ď¨ The Amazon River in South America is the second
longest river in the world and by far the largest by
waterflow with an average discharge greater than the
next seven largest rivers combined. The Amazon,
which has the largest drainage basin in the world,
about 7,050,000 square km, accounts for approximately
one-fifth of the world's total river flow.
ď¨ In its upper stretches, above the confluence of the
Negro River, the Amazon is called Solimoes in Brazil
however, in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, as well as
the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, the river is
generally called the Amazon downstream from the
confluence of the Maranon and Ucayali rivers in Peru.
The Ucayali-ApurĂmac river system is considered the
main source of the Amazon.
14. ď¨ The Seine is a 776 km long river and an important
commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the
north of France. It rises at Source-Seine, 30
kilometres northwest of Dijon in northeastern
France in the Langres plateau, flowing through
Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It
is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as
Rouen, 120 km from the sea. Over 60% 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 Rive Droite and
Rive Gauche within the city of Paris.
