The World's Longest Rivers

Every great civilization grew up beside a river. The Nile sustained Egypt for five thousand years. The Amazon carries more water than the next seven largest rivers combined. The Yangtze was the cradle of Chinese culture and is now dammed to generate power for hundreds of millions. Rivers are not just geographical features: they are the arteries of the world's ecology, the highways of human history, the borders between nations, and the sources of life for billions. To follow any of these rivers from source to sea is to travel through the entire history of human civilization.