The world’s longest river is the Nile. At 6650 kilometres long, it’s no doubt the longest river in the world. All through the earliest civilisation of man, the NileRiver has been entirely the source of water for civilization of man since the ancient times. The Nile has two main tributaries - the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile starts from the Great Lakes region of East and Central Africa through Lake Victoria. The Blue Nile originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile carries with it a lot of fertile soil from soil erosion which turns out to be very fertile for farming in Egypt. The two tributaries, Blue Nile and the White Nile, meet in Khartoum in Sudan.

From Khartoum, the River Nile flow through quietly through the desert and in to Egypt where Egyptian makes use of its water by farming. Aswan (in Egypt), is one of the driest inhabited places on planet earth. People have been able to inhibit and live successful life in Aswan just because of the waters of the Nile. It is in Egypt that people have been able to make better use of the NileRiver since the ancient time. If one looks at the location of nearly all towns and popular historical sites in Egypt, they are all along the banks of the NileRiver. The Nile finally empty into Mediterranean Sea through the Nile delta.

Perhaps one may want to compare the Mississippi – Missouri River at 6275 kilometres long and Amazon River at 6400 kilometres long with Nile’s 6650 kilometres. And the world's most sacred river, river Jordan, is 251 kilometers long.

And on a serious note, River Jordan is currently one of the world's most endangered and polluted river due to differences between Israel and neighboring Arab states.

The Amazon River is the world’s largest River (not longest) at a width of about 40 kilometres during the rainy seasons but about 10 kilometres wide when not flooded. The lenth of the Amazon River is 6400 kilometres. The Amazon River has so much water that it account for no less than 20% of all the world’s water that flows into the oceans on its own. The depth of the Amazon River is as much as 40 metres during the rainy seasons.

From the more than 1100 tributaries, the main tributaries of the Amazon River are Maranon, Japura, Rio Negro Ucayali, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu, Tocantins Iquitos, Manaus and Belem do Para. The main Amazon River flows mostly through Brazil and Peru but its tributaries are also to be found in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

There are many species of animals to be found in Amazon River. The most curious animals in Amazon are the candiru which are parasitic freshwater catfish which are known to enter the urethra of those who urinates on the Amazon River or those who bath there. Another curious creature to be found on the Amazon rain forest (around the Pacific coast of Colombia) is the Golden Dart Frog which is the most poisonous frog on earth. Its poison is used in poisoning arrows by the local people there. The largest snake, the anaconda snake is to be found in the waters of Amazon basin.

The Congo River (read Zaire River), in Africa, is the world’s deepest river. The river has depths of about 250 metres. Its length is 4700 km. This river is very similar to Amazon River in the sense that it’s the second largest river in terms of water volume and that the river flows through the second largest rain forest in the world. The water catchments area of the Congo River basin lie in both north and south of Equator making its flow very stable as there is always at least some tributaries experiencing a rainy season at any one time.

The sources of the Congo River are in the highlands and mountains to be found in the Eastern Africa Rift Valley. The main tributaries of the Congo River include the following rivers: Inkisi River, Nzadi River, Nsele River, Bombo River, Kwa River, Fimi River, Lukenie River, Kwango River, Sankuru River, Likouala River, Sangha River, Ubangi River, Giri River, Uele River, Mbomou River, Lomami River, Luvua River, Luapula River and Chambeshi River.

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