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River sewage is down to greed, incompetence and government failure. Fergal Sharkey
A flood of Biblical proportions … the Mississippi River burst its banks. Ancient Mysteries: America’s Hidden Pyramid City, Channel 5 2017
Nile: Every year in late summer the flood waters roared down from the first cataract here and inundated the valley on either side, covering the land with this thick black silt – very fertile. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Egypt I, BBC 2013
At the height of its power this mighty empire collapsed. Why Ancient Egypt Fell, Discovery 2008
It was destroyed by a force far greater. ibid.
This sudden halt in construction is one of the great enigmas of history. ibid.
80% of the villages and cities in the delta were abruptly abandoned at around the same time as the Egyptians had stopped building pyramids. ibid.
What if something had happened to the Nile? ibid.
Without the floods there would have been no food, and famine would have followed. ibid.
A drought of epic proportions destroyed the old kingdom of ancient Egypt. ibid.
I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn’t
So I jumped in and sank. Langston Hughes, Life is Fine
O bring me your river,
your moss-green bridges,
the bank of your breasts
with their hill-cold springs. Laurie Lee, River
The Amazon is the greatest river in the world by so many measures; the volume of water it carries to the sea (approximately 20% of all the freshwater discharge into the oceans), the area of land that drains into it, and its length and width. It is one of the longest rivers in the world and, depending upon who you talk to, is anywhere between 6,259km/3,903miles and 6,712km/4,195miles long. Extreme Science online article
The Mississippi meanders down the spine of America. Bob Dodson
The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world – four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi ch1
In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. ibid. ch17
When I was a boy on the Mississippi River there was a proposition in a township there to discontinue public schools because they were too expensive. An old farmer spoke up and said if they stopped building the schools they would not save anything, because every time a school was closed a jail had to be built. Mark Twain
Ol’ man river, dat ol’ man river,
He must know sumpin’, but don’t say nothin’,
He jus’ keeps rollin’,
He jus’ keeps rollin’ along. Oscar Hammerstein, song 1927
As Ovid has sweetly in parable told,
We harden like trees, and like rivers grow cold. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Six Town Eclogues
The great grey-green, greasy, Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees. Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories, 1902
Indian rivers are home to the world’s most sociable otter. Smooth-coated otters form family groups up to seventeen strong. David Attenborough, Planet Earth: Freshwater, BBC 2006
The Nile River snaking across the plains of east Africa. As the land flattens out rivers slow down and lose their destructive power. ibid.
From memory the crocodiles know the wildebeest are coming and lie in wait. ibid.
Most rivers drain into the sea, but some end their journey in vast lakes. ibid.
The planet’s indisputable super-river is the Amazon. It carries as much water as the next top ten biggest rivers combined. Rising in the Peruvian Andes its main trunk flows eastwards across Brazil. ibid.
Back on the hunt lured by a riddle of an eight-foot flesh-eater. River Monsters with Jeremy Wade, Discovery 2009
Flesh Ripper: the idea that a freshwater eel could be huge or dangerous comes as a real surprise. ibid.
Maori legends are full of tales of predatory beasts – the Taniwha. ibid.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. Genesis 2:8-10
Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. Ezekiel 29:2-5
The world’s longest river – the Nile ... One of the cradles of humanity. Sacred Rivers with Simon Reeve: The Nile, BBC 2014
The Nile has long flowed through this area of Ethiopia untamed and unused. ibid.
Who does the Nile belong to? ibid.
A great artery of India ... It flows down on to the plains of India. Sacred Rivers with Simon Reeve: The Ganges
Why are Indians doing this to the Ganges? ... It could really do with a clean-up. ibid.
I’ll be travelling two thousand miles along the legendary Yangtze, Asia’s longest river. Sacred Rivers with Simon Reeve: The Yangtze
It features in creation myths about the country. ibid.
This is the Mekong – the mother of water, the greatest river in south-east Asia. It brings life to millions. The Mekong River with Sue Perkins, BBC 2014
The Mekong is a frenetic dirty highway. ibid.
There are 11 hydroelectric dams planned for the lower Mekong in the next decades. ibid.
Rampant deforestation and a booming trade in illegal wildlife is stripping this place of its last precious habitats. I’m passionate about animal welfare. The Mekong River with Sue Perkins II