More recently, in all geographical directories and school books it was reported that the longest river on our planet is the Nile. Today, scientists think differently and argue that the largest river in the world is the Amazon. In their opinion, there are several reasons for this. After the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1960, the Nile became shorter, and new studies and refinements made using satellite data showed that the Amazon with its source Ukayali has a total length of more than seven thousand kilometers, which is much longer than the Nile.
Amazon Record
But the Amazon, in addition to the longest length, is the owner of several more records. It has the largest pool in terms of area - almost 7.2 million km 2. And the Amazon is the most watery river in the world. Due to the abundance of rainfall that regularly falls in the equator's area on the vast territory of its basin, every hour it carries about 643 billion liters of fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean.
More than 500 tributaries flow into the Amazon. Moreover, many of them are large independent water streams. The largest of the left tributaries is the Rio Negro, and the most significant of the right is Madeira. If you add together the length of all the reservoirs of the basin, then their total length will exceed twenty-five thousand kilometers.
The largest river in the world at the confluence of Ukayali in it has a width of 2 km, in the middle reaches 5 km, and in the lower reaches 15-20 km, and in some places it reaches 80 km. Sailing in a boat in the middle of the channel, the coast can not be seen. That you still swim along the river, and not by the sea, can only be determined by the color of the water. Due to the large amount of sand and silt in the water, it is yellow and cloudy.
The mouth of the Amazon is another record high. The width of the largest delta in the world reaches 325 kilometers. More than half the length of the channel from the Atlantic Ocean is navigable. So it turns out that in absolutely all respects, the Amazon is indeed the largest river in the world.
Amazon beauty
Admiring the wild beauty and paying tribute to its mighty power, the local Indians of the Amazon respectfully call the "Queen of the rivers." The rich and extremely diverse plant world, the vibrant saturated colors of the equatorial forest, its yellow waters and the dark waters of the tributaries rightly give reason to say that it is the most beautiful river in the world.
Only on its shores can you see such an amazing combination of unusual trees. Papaya is appreciated for its fruits, mahogany - wood, quinine - bark, hevea - the juice from which rubber is made, and there is also a chocolate tree. And all this diversity is intertwined with vines, forming a continuous green wall along the coast. And on the calm expanse of water in countless tributaries and elders, the largest water lily in the world sways - Victoria Regia, whose leaves reach a meter and a half in diameter.
The largest river in the world is famous for its unique fauna. More than 2.5 thousand species of fish live in its murky waters, including the famous piranhas, river sharks, pink dolphins, huge stingrays, two-meter electric eels and bull fish.
