What is the longest river in the world?

The longest river in the world, measured from its mouth to its most distant, year-round source, is likely the Amazon, which flows 4,345 miles from the Peruvian Andes through Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean. However, much depends on how you measure it. Until 2007, the title belonged to the Nile, which runs 4,258 miles from the mountains of Burundi to its famed and fertile delta fan, where Egypt meets the Mediterranean Sea. The two lengths are close enough that measuring techniques and philosophies can be quite controversial. In fact, the geographers who crowned the Amazon champion were funded in part by the Brazilian government.

The Ancient Egyptians were familiar with the Nile as far upstream as today’s Khartoum, Sudan, some 1,700 miles from the river’s mouth. In A.D. 150 Ptolemy, the famed Greek geographer living in Roman Egypt, wrote that the river originated in the “Mountains of the Moon” deep in the African interior. In 1862 English explorer John Hanning Speke journeyed from Africa’s east coast to find what he considered to be the source, where the river exits Lake Victoria in present-day Uganda.

Geographers did not explore the Amazon’s most distant sources until the mid-20th century, and it was only with the advent of GPS technologies that ever-more accurate estimates, like the 2007 survey, were made possible. Great rivers change course over the seasons and the years, making it difficult to determine which measurement comprises its accurate length. As the crow flies, it is about 2,400 miles from the Nile’s source to its outlet (the meandering Amazon covers a mere 1,100 miles of straight-line distance).

The Euphrates River

Mesopotamia was the area between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Euphrates is described as the southernmost of the two rivers but also appears on maps to the west of the Tigris. It starts in eastern Turkey, flows through Syria and into Mesopotamia (Iraq) before joining the Tigris to flow into the Persian Gulf.

The Xia Dynasty

The final part of the Mythical Period was under the rule of the legendary Xia Dynasty, which may have been mythological. After the final ruler became corrupt, he was overthrown by Cheng Tang, who founded the Shang Dynasty.

Learning Objectives

Recall characteristics of the Xia Dynasty

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Sima Qian ‘s “Historical Records,” the first comprehensive history of China, said that the last of the Five Emperors, Emperor Shun, left his throne to Yu the Great, who founded the Xia Dynasty.
• The Xia Dynasty was the first Chinese dynasty it is still not known whether this dynasty existed or is only mythological.
• According to mythology, when the last Xia king became corrupt and cruel, Cheng Tang overthrew him in c. 1760 BCE and founded the Shang Dynasty.
• Many argue that the Zhou Dynasty, which ruled China much later, invented the idea of the Xia Dynasty to support their claim that China could only be, and had always been, ruled by one ruler.

Key Terms

• Mandate of Heaven: The Chinese philosophical concept of the circumstances under which a ruler is allowed to rule. Good rulers were allowed to rule under the Mandate of heaven, while despotic, unjust rulers had the Mandate revoked.
• Sima Qian: A renowned Chinese historiographer of the 2nd century BCE who wrote about the Xia Dynasty.
• Shang Dynasty: Also called the Yin Dynasty, succeeded the Xia Dynasty and followed the Zhou Dynasty. It existed in the second millennium BCE.

Sima Qian’s Historical Records

The earliest comprehensive history of China is the Historical Records, written by Sima Qian, a renowned Chinese historiographer of the 2nd century BCE. This history begins around 3600 BCE, with an account of the Five Emperors. According to this history, the last of the great Five Emperors, Emperor Shun, left his throne to Yu the Great, who founded China’s First Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty. Yu supposedly began the practice of inherited rule (passing power from father to son), a model that was perpetuated in the later Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Depiction of Yu the Great: This hanging scroll shows Yu the Great, as imagined by Song Dynasty painter Ma Lin.

According to mythology, Yu’s descendants ruled China for nearly 500 years, until the last Xia king became corrupt and cruel. This led to his overthrow in c. 1760 BCE by Cheng Tang, who founded a new dynasty, the Shang Dynasty, in the Huang River Valley.

Sima Qian’s Historical Records: The first page of Sima Qian’s Historical Records.

Debate Over the Existence of the Xia Dynasty

There is much debate among scholars about how much of this mythology is true. Many argue that the Zhou Dynasty, which ruled China much later, invented the idea of the Xia Dynasty to support their claim that China could only be, and had always been, ruled by one ruler. The Zhou created the idea of the “Mandate of Heaven,” which stated that there could be only one legitimate ruler of China at any given time. If he was a good ruler, he would have the support of heaven if he was despotic, he would be overthrown. The various small states that had comprised Neolithic and Bronze Age China contradicted this version of history. Some people argue, therefore, that the Zhou may have created the idea of an ancient Xia Dynasty to support the idea that China always had one ruler.

Nonetheless, the Xia Dynasty may not be a complete fabrication recent archaeological evidence may support its existence. (For a long time it was believed that the later Shang Dynasty may also have been purely mythological, until archaeology proved that it was real.) Archaeologists have discovered an advanced Bronze Age culture in China. Its capital, Erlitou, was a huge city around 2000 BCE. This may in fact be the people referred to in Chinese mythology as the Xia. It is believed that the Xia may have created a primitive writing system, though no evidence of this has been found. However, evidence does suggest that the Xia developed agricultural methods and experienced considerable prosperity. However, lack of irrigation and flood protection made the region prone to frequent floods and other natural disasters.

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Tigranes was named as the king of kings.

ΐ] Α] ||1975||From the landing of Columbus in the Americas to the abandonment of the last African colony of Western Sahara.||Was among the first truly global empires

Β] ||1999||Was the longest lived of the colonial Western European empires. From the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the hand over of Macau 1999.||Was one of the first truly global empires.

Huang He Valley

The areas surrounding China&rsquos second-longest river were home to the oldest dynasties of ancient China, making the Huang He Valley the birthplace of Chinese civilization.

Anthropology, Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations, World History

Huang He Valley

The Huang He (Yellow River) Valley is the birthplace of Chinese Civilization. The Yellow River is the second largest river in China and one of the longest river systems in the world.

Huang He Valley (or in English, Yellow River Valley) was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and for that reason is often called &ldquoMother River.&rdquo The valley surrounds the principal river of northern China and is at the center of thousands of years of Chinese history. At over 5,400 kilometers (3,300 miles) long, the Huang He is China&rsquos second-longest river. It has a drainage basin of around 750,000 square kilometers (290,000 square miles), the third largest basin area in China. It is called the Yellow River because its waters carry silt, which give the river its yellow-brown color, and when the river overflows, it leaves a yellow residue behind. While the river helps create fertile land that is suited for farming, during certain times of the year the Huang He frequently overflows. The water damages housing and crops across the North China Plain, an important agricultural region. Because of this, the Huang He is also nicknamed &ldquoChina&rsquos Sorrow.&rdquo For thousands of years, the Chinese have embarked on major public works projects to control and irrigate the water from the Huang He, including hydroelectric dams in modern times. Despite the possibility of flooding, the Huang He Valley basin is home to a huge population, and many of China&rsquos oldest cities are situated along the river.

It is hard to say exactly when villages and tribes began arising in the Huang He Valley, but most scholars agree that a major power consolidation occurred from around 2100 to 1600 B.C.E., creating the Xia Dynasty. During that time, tribal leaders came together to try to solve the problem of the Huang He overflowing and wiping out their villages and crops. Da Yu, or Yu the Great, is a mythological figure who created systems to control the floods in the Huang He Valley, and is credited as the first leader of the Xia Dynasty. With the ability to better control the Huang He and save their crops from flooding, Chinese leaders were able to solidify their rule of China, and a number of dynasties headquartered in the region followed. The valley became the center of Chinese culture, society, and learning.

The Huang He (Yellow River) Valley is the birthplace of Chinese Civilization. The Yellow River is the second largest river in China and one of the longest river systems in the world.

Contents

Twenty-five longest-reigning monarchs of states that were internationally sovereign for most or all of their reign.

The table below contains monarchs of states that were not internationally sovereign for most of their reign.

"(HRE)" indicates a semi-sovereign state within the Holy Roman Empire and a reign that concluded before the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. "(HRE*)" indicates a reign that began when the state was within the Empire and continued after its dissolution.

These monarchs are grouped according to length of reign by year in whole numbers. Within each year-grouping, they appear in historical order. In a given year, there may have been a wide array of actual reign lengths based on days. Thus, this table does not present a precise ranking by length of reign. The list is limited to those that might reasonably be expected to lie within the range of those in the tables above, at minimum 57 years.

Japanese legendary emperors, according to the ancient Japanese calendar, reigned for very long terms of 60–70 years each. The longest ruler of the legendary emperors, Emperor Kōan, was claimed to have reigned for about 101 years. These figures are not included in the table because they are regarded as inaccurate by modern scholars. For those see Longevity myths.

Somme Offensive

Source: By Ernest Brooks – Public Domain

When the German army launched the attack on Verdun, the Allied forces (British and French) had already determined to attack German strongholds on the River Somme. As a result, the French could not commit the promised troops to the offensive as they were defending their positions at Verdun. This caused the British troops to be overrun on the first day. They lost just over 57,000 soldiers.

Yet, over the course of several battles for the forts and strongholds near the Somme, the British and French eventually overwhelmed German defenses that were dug in to trenches.

Did You Know?

This was the first instance of the heavy use of tanks in ground combat. Most of the tanks broke down during battle.

Key Facts & Information

HISTORY

• The Yellow River has been involved in several deadly floods that have happened in the history of China. Some of these deadly floods include the 1332-1333 flood during the Yuan dynasty, the 1887 flood during the Qing dynasty, and the 1931 flood during the Republic of China era.
• The 1887 Qing dynasty flood killed around 900,000 to 2 million people, while the 1931 Republic of China flood killed around 1 million to 4 million people.
• The main cause of these floods is the large amount of fine-grained loess that the river carries from the Loess Plateau.
• The sedimentation creates natural dams, and due to the enormous amount of water, the water has to find new ways to the sea, which eventually causes floods.

BASIC INFORMATION

• The Yellow River rises in southern Qinghai province on the Plateau of Tibet and then crosses six provinces and two autonomous regions.
• These include Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong.
• Currently, the mouth of the Yellow River is located in Kenli County in in Shandong.
• The following are the tributaries of the Yellow River: White River, Black River, Datong River, Daxia River, Tao River, Zuli River, Qingshui River, Dahei River, Kuye River, Wuding River, Fen River, Wei River, Luo River, Qin River, Dawen River, and Kuo River.

GEOGRAPHY

• The Yellow River is divided into three parts: a mountainous upper course, a middle course across a plateau, and a lower course across a low plain.
• The upper course of the river crosses two large bodies of water, Ngoring Lake and Gyaring Lake. These bodies of water are rich in fish but freeze over during the winter season.
• The upper course consists mainly of inaccessible, highly mountainous, sparsely populated terrain with a cold climate.
• The middle course flows northeast through the sandy soils of Ningxia and Ordos Plateau.
• Then, the river turns eastward and flows through the alluvial plains in Inner Mongolia.
• The river then turns southward and forms the border between the Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces.
• The lower course flows through Henan and Shandong provinces across the North China Plain.
• The Yellow River has changed its course across the North China Plain several times. Due to this, inhabitants of the region have built extensive systems of levees and irrigation works in an attempt to control the river’s flow.
• The tributaries of the Yellow River include the White River, Black River, Huang Shui, Daxia River, Tao River, Zuli River, Qingshui River, Dahei River, Kuye River, Wuding River, Fen River, Wei River, Luo River, Qin River, Dawen River, and Kuo River.
• There are also bridges and ferries situated along the Yellow River.
• Some of these include the Jinan Yellow River Bridge, Luokou Yellow River Railway Bridge, Kaifeng Yellow River Bridge, Yinchuan Yellow River Bridge, and Zhongshan Bridge.

BIODIVERSITY

• The Yellow River is rich in fish. However, due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution, there has been a decline in the fish population.
• Cyprinidae is the most diverse family in the Yellow River basin.
• Some other families that can be found in the Yellow River include stone loaches, gobies, true loaches, and bagrid catfish.
• The upper part of the Yellow River is dominated by salmonids.
• In contrast, the lower part of the Yellow River is home to many brackish species, like gobies, Asian seabasses, flatfish, and Takifugu pufferfish.
• Other fish in the Yellow River include Asian carp, northern snakehead, and Asian swamp eel.
• Two turtle species are native to the Yellow River basin. These two species are the Chinese pond turtle and the Chinese softshell turtle.
• The Chinese giant salamander is native to the Yellow River and to other Chinese rivers. It is largely farmed for food and traditional medicinal uses.

STATUS

• Severe pollution due to factory discharges, wastes, and other factors has made parts of the Yellow River unusable for agricultural and industrial use.
• The Yellow River and its floods have been central to the legend, folklore, and written history of Chinese civilization.

EXPLORATION

• Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky, a Russian traveler, was the first European to explore the upper reaches of the Yellow River in 1879 and 1884.
• Systematic study of the river basin was first done in the 1950s by Chinese and Soviet scientists.

Yellow River Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Yellow River across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Yellow River worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Yellow River, also known as Huang He, which is best known as the second-longest river in China and sixth-longest river system in the world.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Yellow River Facts
• The Yellow River
• Along The River
• Why?
• History
• Tributaries
• In The River
• Turtle Species
• Salamander
• Let’s Clean!
• Documentary

Link/cite this page

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

Egypt Nile River Facts

The Nile river used to provide the ancient Egyptians with fertile land. The soil along the Nile was rich with different growing crops, which are wheat “the main Egyptians staple food”, papyrus “that were used in paper, baskets, and sandals”, and flax “that was used in manufacturing linen clothes for clothing”. The Nile River has always been the life source for all living creatures since the Stone Age. The Nile has made life in the Egyptian desert possible. It provides drinking water, a source of irrigation for crops, and the most important thing is the fertile soil used to grow crops.

Without the Nile River, the ancient Egyptian Civilization would not have survived. It has made it easy for cities and civilizations along the Nile to grow. Through the Nile, The ancient Egyptians have developed methods for the irrigation system, which helped them to grow and to have such a unique civilization. The Nile river is considered to be a weapon that protects Egypt from the upcoming water war. Egypt without the Nile is just a desert.

What is the longest river in the world? - HISTORY

Exodus 7:17 - Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that [is] in mine hand upon the waters which [are] in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

Map of The Nile River (Old Testament)

Egypt and the Nile River. The land of Egypt was blessed with the Nile River, and everything near this river was fruitful. Egypt was truly called "the gift of the Nile", and without this magnificent river everything around would be a desert. In Egypt the desert is everywhere, but along both sides of the Nile River is black mud which created lush farmland. The great mountains of Africa carry rich soil into Egypt via the Nile River. Nearly every year the Nile River would overflow its banks, when the snow on the mountains had melted. This would cause the soil near the banks of the Nile to be very rich and fertile, and this is the reason why Egypt was called "the gift of the Nile".

Geographical Facts. The Nile River is the longest river in the entire world, flowing over 4000 miles from its origin down in Central Africa and dumping into the Mediterranean Sea. In fact the river flows from south to north which is very unusual for a river. The Nile River is between 2 miles and 30 miles wide depending on where you are along the river. If one were to park along the bank of the river and walk on shore, there would be lush dark soil or "black mud" for a period of time, and suddenly it would become dry sandy desert colored red. In the ancient world when people noticed this dark line running down the landscape, they describe it as looking like a thread, and the Egyptians referred to it as "Redland Blackland." The Egyptians built their homes in the desert a short distance away from the rich dark black thread of soil. According to Genesis 10 the father of Egypt was Noah's grandson Mizraim whose name comes from two words that means "red soil" and "two Matzor or Egypts" which no doubt alludes to the red color of the desert sand, and a prophecy of the dual nature of Upper and Lower Egypt. The modern Arabic name for Egypt is Muzr.

The Nile Delta. At the northernmost portion of the Nile River, also known as the mouth, there is the great Nile Delta. In fact this is the meaning of the word Delta, when a river flows for a very long time the mouth begins to form many channels. The word Delta is actually the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet and looks like a triangle, with a point on one end and a fan on the opposite end, and this fan provides the imagery of the mouth of a river. The Delta never stops widening because of the new soil deposits.

Etymology of the word "Nile". The Greek word Nilus is not an Egyptian word or meaning, nor is the Semitic word Nahar which means river. The ancient Egyptians revealed the meaning in the hieroglyphic names of the river, in reference to various gods and goddesses, for example Isis, and the natural attributes of the Nile River attributed to her. Hapi means that "overspreads", Nu means that is "lifted up". Uka speaks of what "gushes forth". Akba Ura speaks of "great weeping", when the Nile overflows its banks. The ancient Egyptians also spoke of the river as a divine serpent.

Genesis 12:9-10 - "And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land."

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