What is the longest river in the world?

Surely, on more than one occasion in your student days you have been asked what the longest river in the world was and probably, the answer that many of you gave was contested. And this is because there has always been a dispute between the Nile River and the Amazon for the title of the longest river in the world.

In this post where you are, We are going to try to solve this doubt and try to explain how they differ from one another and try to determine which would be the longest worldwide. There have always been and will continue to be two sides of the discussion: those who bet on the Amazon and, on the other hand, those who bet on the Nile.

Knowing and measuring the longest river in the world is not as easy a process as it is believed. It is much more complicated than it seems, it is not only measuring the starting point of the river and its end. These water currents usually come together in river systems, which makes it very difficult to know where it begins and where it ends.

What is a river?

Everyone should know the definition of a river, but in case there are any clueless people in the room, let's start by explaining this term.

A river is a stream of water that runs from its source to the mouth of another river, lake or sea. The rivers differ from each other by being more or less mighty, this depends on the parts that make up this current. Since, they can feed in various ways such as rainfall, springs, seepage, melting, etc.

Three main parts that make up a river can be pointed out. The first one would be upper course, that is, the part where the water current we are talking about is born. The second would be the middle course which is the area where the slope widens and also decreases. And lastly, the lower course area where the slope and speed is reduced.

If the question of how a river is formed has ever crossed your mind? At this time we will try to explain it to you. In mountainous areas or hills, the waters of the precipitations that have fallen flow and are concentrated in a certain point. When these depressions are filled, channels are formed that very quickly and will begin to erode the land. This is due to the force carried by the water current as well as with the help of the sediments.

This, gives rise to the birth of a young river that little by little will deepen its bed. Over time, when the water current flows through a smoother area, the channel will erode the different parts of its route and deposit sediments, which will generate a flood bed, until it reaches the mouth.

What is the longest river in the world?

Today, professionals in charge of river measurement agree that the The most accepted procedure for this is to measure the distance between the source of the current and the point of mouth.. In other words, in order to know which is the longest river on the planet, it is necessary to measure the length of the channel of the continuous water current in a certain fluvial system.

It must be said that it is very easy to say, but once what has been said is put into practice it can be somewhat more complicated.. By this, we mean that in certain rivers it may be easy to determine the starting point of the current, but not so much the mouth, which may be somewhat less specific to indicate.

Nile vs Amazon

These two rivers, as we have commented at the beginning of this publication, are the ones that are always in continuous discussion as to which of them is the longest in the world. Well, in this section, we are going to talk about each of them providing data and pointing out which would be the one that meets the title of the longest.

The Nile River, according to the vast majority of experts in the sector, should be classified as the longest river on the planet, due to its length of 6650 kilometers. Its channel for mainly through the area of ​​Egypt, from its point of birth in Burundi passing through Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Republic of the Congo.

For many years now, Lake Victoria has been considered the source of the Nile River. This lake is surrounded by mountains, which are full of streams that flow into it. Its largest tributary is the Kagera River which has the starting point of its watercourse in Burundi. It is from this point, where the Nile River is measured and classified as the longest river in the world.

On the other hand we have The Amazon, which is considered the largest river in the world, but for its volume of water. This river we are talking about, corresponds to the number two position due to its extension. But, as we have just pointed out, they have the first place because they are the largest.

In some parts of the route of this river, it has come to exceed 190 kilometers wide, when its flow increases in size due to the rains torrential falls in season. It should be noted that even in the driest seasons it is so wide that no construction covers it to cross it.

Its waters flow through territories such as Brazil and end up flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. It should be noted that also forms the largest river basin on the planet where Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia are included.

As we have seen, the Nile and Amazon rivers have been the subject of discussion about which is the longest in the world. When reading everything mentioned, your first answer to the question posed by this publication would be that the Nile River is the longest, but it is not.. This is due to a new finding found in an expedition of scientists, which has determined that the length of the Amazon River is 100 kilometers greater than that of the Nile, thus unseating the Nile from first place.

These expedition scientists in Peru, one of the territories through which the Amazon river flows, has determined that the source of this stream is at a point in the southern part of this country, instead of in the northern area as had been believed until now.

This event has made the statistics change and that, consider the fact that the Amazon River is the longest in the world.

Other longest rivers in the world

Its extensions cover thousands of kilometers and in addition, its channels cross different territories of the map, being a source of food for different animal and plant species. Next, We are going to point out which are the longest main rivers in the world in addition to the two that we have seen in the previous section.

Yangtze River

With a length of 6300 kilometers, it is one of the longest rivers in the world. that can be found. Its stream of water travels through much of China, from west to east.

Mississippi River

Located in North America, and cWith a total length of 6275 kilometers, which crosses the United States from north to south. Its channel runs through ten different states until it reaches the point of its mouth located in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yenisei River

The second longest river in the Asian continent, with a total length of 5539 kilometers. It occupies the fifth place of longest river in the world. Its waters are fed by Lake Baikal, Selengá, Angara and Ider.

Yellow River

In China, it is the second longest river and sixth in the world. It has a length of almost 5500 kilometers. It is one of the most important rivers in Chinese territory, due to the areas that its waters run through.

ob river

Among the ten longest rivers in the world, ranked number seven in the world rankings. The current of water that this river carries crosses different territories, but above all a large part of Siberian Russia, China and Kazakhstan.

If we talk about Spain, we can highlight the Ebro river with a length of 930 kilometers. Which run through different communities such as Cantabria, Castilla y León, La Rioja, the Basque Country, Navarra, Aragón and Catalonia. Another of the rivers to take into account in the Spanish territory is the Tagus River, with a total of 1038 kilometers and the Duero River being the largest.

As has been seen, initially the Nile River was considered the longest in the world, ahead of the Amazon. But after an arduous investigation and this new finding by a group of professionals, this classification changed. Therefore, the Amazon River was given the number one position in length count.