The Nile river (left) as seen from space.
WE HUMANS sure love to measure and rank stuff.
Over the course of our civilisation, we have measured and ranked pretty much anything worth doing like the biggest continent (Asia), the tallest mountain (Mt Everest) and the largest ocean (the Pacific).
What about the longest river? That's the River Nile, right?
VERDICT:
(Depends on who you ask)
The title of "longest river in the world" has been fought over for centuries and scientists still can't fully agree on what has been a contentious matter.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, as well as most English-speaking sources, the Nile is the world’s longest river, stretching roughly 6,695km from East Central Africa towards Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
In second place is the Amazon River flowing for 6,400km from the Andes through the thick rainforests of South America. The Amazon of course is also known as the largest river in the world, as it has the largest volume of water flow.
So that's it right? The Nile wins? Well not quite.
Some South American sources (but of course) claim that the Amazon is the true king of rivers with an actual length of 6,992km. How is this possible?
You see, measuring a river's length is a bit more complicated than just whipping out a measuring tape on a map and checking how long it is. It all depends on where you start and finish measuring.
Do you start from where it is a stream or a mere trickle? What if the river has many tributaries or smaller streams?
In 2007, scientists in South America, mainly Brazil (where else), undertook a 14-day expedition along the Amazon to accurately measure its length.
They managed to trace the river all the way back to a snow-capped mountain in southern Peru and claimed that the Amazon measured 6,800km in length, making it longer than the Nile.
"Today, we can consider the Amazon the longest river in the world," Guido Gelli, study author and director of science at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics told the British newspaper The Telegraph.
Likewise, the starting point of the Nile is also subject to debate. While it is generally accepted the river begins from Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake by area, the lake itself is fed by other rivers, including the Kagera River, which stems from the Ruwenzori Mountains. All in all, it’s a lot more complex than it first appears.
Pinpointing the end point of rivers can also be tricky, according to Andrew Johnston, a geographer at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
"The mouth of the Amazon is so wide, it's hard to pick the exact spot at which to choose the endpoint with that kind of precision," he told National Geographic News.
The latest effort to prove the Amazon's right to the throne was made by another team of scientists in April 2024, led by Brazilian expedition leader and film producer Yuri Sanada.
The team's plan is to start at the source of the river in the Peruvian Andes, then travel nearly 7,000km across Colombia and Brazil, to the massive river's mouth on the Atlantic.
So are these Brazilian scientists right or is denial a river in Egypt?
“The Nile is like a worm and the Amazon is an anaconda,” Sanada told CNN.
“So there’s no comparison – we have the biggest river. But the longest, we will see.”
References
1. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/worlds-longest-river-amazon-expedition/index.html
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/12/amazon-nile-longest-river/
3. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/amazon-longer-than-nile-river
4. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-river
5. https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2018/10/extremities-of-the-earth-the-longest-river-part-1/
8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6759291.stm
9. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-longer-amazon-nile-quest-aims.html#google_vignette
10. https://www.iflscience.com/the-worlds-longest-river-that-depends-who-you-ask-73344
11 https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/rio-amazonas.htm
