Great Rivers of The WorldDance of Water on Planet EarthGreat rivers like Nile river, Amazon, Mississippi, Congo, Rhine, Volga, Danube, Yangtze, Ganges, Zambezi are not only the lifeline of life on different part of earth but they also adore the beauty of our Gaia as well, turning it into a green lively abode of wildlife and human civilizations.  Our Gaia is so much of water personified as human bodies are; entitling it as Blue Planet. Water is there on it available in various formats, but among of all the formats of water it has, be it sea, oceans or reservoirs; great-rivers are most lively and dynamic one!
These great ones are the blood vessels of our Gaia’s body and their tributaries perform like its capillaries. Each of these great-rivers has been supporting, nourishing and shaping the development of human settlings on their basins in their unique way since times immemorial. Their moving water shapes geography of Earth and creates beautiful landscapes such as canyons and gorges. great-rivers carry sediments and deposit them; creating new fertile deltas and islands in the sea you love to visit. All these great-rivers have always held the human brain in their awe and yet have perennially fascinated it towards themselves. What makes the great-rivers great? Does their being great watery or does their titanic volume do so? Or the rich wilderness of flora and fauna crowding their basins make them great? Or does the thousands-mile-long swathe of land the great-rivers drain along the course of their run make them great? None of all these! We find them great because they give us a feel of freedom, feel of a larger life helping us in coming out of our petty boundaries of self yet making us humble, a feel of an endless story that they have always been telling along. They give us a sense of continuous journey, journey of life without stagnating and getting rotten. The mighty wild flow of great-rivers knows no pettiness be it the division of earth into small fraction known as countries or any ugly apartheid between man and man. It offers itself to one and all equally and generously. Great-rivers run dancing wildly to their own tunes in winding ways following no line of direction; it even defies gravity by its jumping waves trying to fly high as if they are willing to touch the sky. Let us dive deep into each of these great-rivers and flow along them here to explore the beauty, history, mystery and personality of each. Here we take a dive and ply along- If these are the love affairs of Egyptian queen Cleopatra and Marc Antony or the thrill
If great African-rivers help us to go close and enjoy our primitive spirits of wild freedom, European-rivers take us onto a journey to a surreal world of subtle arts and aesthetics with their crystal clear water and scenic beauty along. Europe boasts more celebrated cities than anywhere else on earth. Basel, Strasbourg,
From its origins in Germany's Black Forest, the stately Danube winds its way through country after country, including Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea. Vienna, the cultural capital of central Europe, claims more splendid architecture, museums, and classical music than any city on Earth has.
Both the Danube and the Rhine have their source in Alps whereas the Volga is snowmelt-fed from the Valdai Hills north of Moscow. If Brazil and Amazon brings to your memory name of the films like- Tarzon, Manhunt in the Jungle, Angel on the Amazon, Cobra Verde, Angels and Insects, Creatures of the Amazon, Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest, these all speak of the great-river Amazon and also sketches many of the dimensions of its persona. The Amazon is the river of excess.
Amazon is only a tad smaller than the Nile and is the most watery river on earth, more than any other on earth. An estimated one-fifth of all the world's fresh running water finds its way into this titanic-river, which flows 4,000 miles across South America from the Andes to the Atlantic.
It has on an average, some 28 billion gallons per minute flow into the sea, about 10 times the flow of the Mississippi.The discharge is so great that it noticeably dilutes the salinity of the Atlantic's waters for more than 100 miles offshore. More kinds of fish, birds, mammals, plants, flowers, insects and trees crowd the Amazon basin than anywhere else on earth including flesh-eating piranhas and blood-sucking vampires. There are 1,500 species of fish in its water and more than 8,000 kinds of insects
America is a young country and a big one.
It has curiosity of young mind and its open, experimenting and democratic attitude has attracted people from different backgrounds and cultures of the world and continues doing so. These cultural Interactions between them created various new waves in all walks of life differently in different parts of this big country. We can pick anyone out of many such as war history, trade zones, literature or music, anything but how the music in America takes on different styles along the run of Mississippi is one window
to understand different Americas of America. Music styles like blues, rock 'n' roll and soul music took birth in delta region of Mississippi where as jazz flourished in Deep South end (Louisiana) of Mississippi. Mississippi rises in north from Minnesota's Lake Itasca and heads down south. Mississippi is a massive muddy river. The Mississippi was the first interstate highway in America and still today a very busy one.
The eastern and western halves of the Mississippi do make the eastern and western United States.
The West of the Mississippi is the land of cowboy boots, cattle, myth and prairies. East of Mississippi is white America's version of the "old country," the towns that liked to consider themselves as centers of civilization on the border of the barbarous wilderness. St. Louis is the crossroad in Mississippi’s journey from north to south and is called central Midwest of the country. Life stories of greats like- Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and General Grant are associated with this great river. In the South-most the Mississippi passes through regions like Louisiana and New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz.
Spanish immigrants are a major influence in music here.
The tremendous influence of the Yangtze-River upon the people and their culture is beyond dispute one of the all major
The Chinese call it Chang Jiang, literally meaning "Long-River", as the Yangtze is the third-longest and deepest river (more than 500 feet) of all the great-rivers on earth.
The Yangtze trickles to life among the glacial meltwaters on the slopes of the T'ang-ku-la Mountains high in the Tibetan plateau.
On halfway of its 6,300 km long journey to the Yellow Sea, it passes through its most impressive section (the most storied stretch of the river)- the incomparable Three Gorges:
Huge pointed slabs of limestone 1,000 to 2,000 feet high line the 125-mile-long gorge, shooting straight up from the river like dragon's teeth. Though some people ardently proclaimed that the soul of the-river would be forever lost by the building of the Three Gorges Dam, it is now clear that the beauty of the Gorges and towering hillsides has not been diminished by the changes to the contour of the river.
Like the Mississippi-river Yangtze also bisects the country to provide an important geographical and cultural boundary between northern and southern peoples.
I hope u must be enjoying this voyage.If you have gone a bit sapped these great beauties (great-rivers) will certainly refresh you and rejuvenate you back.
Come, now we are heading toward the most mysterious and highest of all-rivers so beware- The Yarlung Tsangpo river—the highest river in the world, with an average elevation of over 13,000 feet— is a mysterious river which flows some 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers) through two of the world’s oldest countries China and India. It starts from the Tibetan region of China and enters India through Arunachal Pradesh (an Indian state).
Further downstream, the-river widens and becomes the Brahmaputra in Indian plain where it confluences with another great Ganga river after which the mingled waters of the two great-rivers join the Bay of Bangal. The Brahmputra is not a navigable one. The geographical history and geographical features of this river are subjects of a great interest. The "Yarlung Tsangpo" was flowing before the Himalayas were born.
The resulting 1,500-mile-long Himalayan mountain range forced a radical realignment in the river's course of flow (There is even evidence that it once flowed in the opposite direction.) In the course of running through the Himalayas it makes two big bends at the eastern and the western ends of the Himalayas range and plunges into mysterious precipitous descent.
Tsangpo runs east through Tibet along the northern slope of the Himalayas, then takes an abrupt U turn when it reaches the Mt. Namcha Barwa (the eastern edge of Himalayas and the highest peak of east Himalayas 7,782m) and starts flowing south-east and makes another U turn when it reaches the high peak of west Himalayas (the western edge of Himalayas) - the Mt. Nanga Parbat (8,125m), then west into India and then turns south again to its mouth in Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal. In fact, through the 1800s it wasn't known for certain if the river that emerged from the southern flank of the Himalayas was the same one that entered on the north. Adding to the mystery were two seemingly irreconcilable observations: Where the Tsangpo accelerates into its gorge the elevation is just over 9,000 feet. Where it exits, flowing in exactly the opposite direction, the elevation is under 1,000 feet.
Grand Canyon of Colorado River - depth 2,682m (8,799 ft), length 440 km was one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world. It enjoyed the title of the largest canyon of the world until in 1994 the world learned about the Great Canyon of Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River in Himalayas (Tibet).Its depth reaches 5,382m (17,657 ft) and it has a total length of 496.3km. The Yarlung Tsangpo Great Canyon is a wonderful area with all the fascinating features.
In the Great Canyon region, it has the complete 9 natural zones of the Earth. It offers everything from snow mountain, glaciers to tropical rain forests.
This remote region is not disturbed by mankind.
It has something fascinating for everyone be it - Scientist, professional expeditor, photographer or an amateur & young adventurer, you will always be attracted by the treasure of this Great Canyon here. The Ganges is more than just a river.
It touches every aspect of the existence of life living around it: from life to death, from livelihood to meditation, and from pleasure to salvation.
The Ganges is holy water.
The Hindu believes that a single dip in the Ganges and an invocation of the river’s holy name ensures permanent liberation of the human soul.
Hindus scatter the ashes of their dead upon the river, in the belief that the souls of the deceased will go straight to heaven. The Ganges (length: about 1500 miles) begins life 10,000 feet up among the snowmelt of the southern Himalayas.
Ganges has on its bank the most densely populated area in the world.
It has caught the imagination of many travelers from around the world who have traversed up and down its course in their search for the true meaning of human existence. The Sundarbans in the east and the Corbett National Park in the north are two thriving symbols of the endless bounty of the Ganges. The Sundarbans is a vast swampy delta of the two great Indian-rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. It spreads across a wide swathe comprising mangrove forests and stretches of dense vegetation interlinked by a network of small-rivers and rivulets.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Ganges crops us repeatedly as much in India’s religious texts as in its movies and literary works. But a danger is imminent to the life on earth which is also mauling and eroding the beauty of these great-rivers. The danger of global warming, a gift of cut throat competition in exploiting the natural resources in all possible way!
We are certainly making the world a hell for life. Let us see if efforts of a few caring people could help the World and these great-rivers being saved or else! No don’t sit idle and hope they could! Be a active partner in this mission if you love these great-rivers, one of them might be there in the very vicinity of yours!
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Gaia Earth: Blue Planet
