80 The World’s Longest Rivers

At some 2,300 miles in length, the Mississippi is the longest river in the United States; however, the Mackenzie is the longest river in Canada. But these waterways are seem minuscule in comparison to the world’s two lengthiest rivers: the Nile and the Amazon.

The Nile, which begins in central Africa and flow over 4,100 miles north into the Mediterranean, hosted one of the world’s great ancient civilizations along its shores, paid for most of the year. The Nile used to flood annually thereby creating irrigating and carrying new topsoil to the nearby farmland as well, which ancient Egyp- tian relied vessels for sustenance. A transportation from modes fishing and cargo, which are found on the waterway up and down its length. A journey through the unobstructed part of this waterway pass by the splendid Valley of the Kings, where the tombs of many of the ancient monarchs have stood for over 3,000 years.

Great civilizations and intensive settlement are hardly associated with the Amazon, yet this 4,000-mile-long South American river carries about 20 percent of the world’s fresh water—more than the Mississippi, Nile, and Yangtze over 1,000 miles long and as wide as some 15,000 points that from its center neither other statistics are equally astounding. Of is the Amazon pours some 55 million gallons of water into the Atlantic; there at its mouth stands one island larger than Switzerland.

Most important of all, the Amazon irrigates the largest tropical rain forest on earth.

80 世界上最长的河流

密西西比河长约2300英里，是美国最长的河流；而麦肯齐河是加拿大最长的河流。但与世界上两条最长的河流——尼罗河和亚马逊河相比，这些水道显得微不足道。

尼罗河发源于非洲中部，向北流淌4100多英里注入地中海，其沿岸孕育了世界上最伟大的古代文明之一，一年中大部分时间都能带来收益。尼罗河过去每年都会泛滥，从而创造了灌溉条件，并将新的表土带到附近的农田，古埃及人依靠船只维持生计。这里的水道提供了运输方式，包括渔业和货运，这些都可以在河道的上下游找到。沿着这条畅通无阻的水道旅行，可以经过壮丽的帝王谷，许多古代君主的陵墓已经在那里矗立了3000多年。

伟大的文明和密集的定居点几乎与亚马逊河无关，但这条4000英里长的南美河流承载着世界约20%的淡水——比密西西比河、尼罗河和长江的总和还多，它长达1000多英里，最宽处达15000处，从其中心看不到对岸，其他数据也同样令人震惊。亚马逊河每秒向大西洋注入约5500万加仑的水；在它的入海口有一个比瑞士还大的岛屿。

最重要的是，亚马逊河灌溉着地球上最大的热带雨林。