Expedition Aims To Settle Debate About the World’s Longest River

If someone asks, “What’s the world’s longest river?,” you’ll probably answer “the African Nile” without a doubt and add that it is roughly 6650 kilometres. That is also the answer given by the Guinness World Records and Encyclopedia Britannica. However, a group of international researchers and explorers are planning an expedition to scientifically prove that the Amazon River in South America, not the Nile, holds the title of “world’s longest river.”

This Brazilian expedition will tour the Amazon River spanning through Peru, Columbia, and Brazil, planning to travel some 7000 kilometres. Travelling by rafts, solar-powered canoes, and horseback, these researchers will use intelligent satellite river-mapping technology to measure the length of the Amazon. The expedition includes two segments: The first will start at the newly designated source in the Mantaro (deep in the Peruvian Andes) in April 2024 and is estimated to take five months. The second segment will begin in 2025, from the traditionally recognized source of the Amazon, the headwaters of the Apurimac River. The leader of this expedition, Yuri Sanada, says: “The Nile is like a worm and the Amazon an anaconda.” The group may prove that the Amazon is longer than the Nile.

But why bother to measure in the first place? Well, the question of the world’s longest river gets contested, and even in an advanced world like today, that question is hard to answer. The problems all come down to measuring the Amazon River, the biggest challenger for the Nile’s title. This river is not a singular stretch of water but a river system like a tree and its branches. Also, there have been debates on the very fact of where the Amazon begins. Traditionally, it originates from the Apurimac River in South Peru, though more recently, James ‘Rocky’ Contos claims to have discovered a more distant source, at the Mantaro River, which adds 77 kilometres to the total length of the Amazon. That is why the expedition will be split into two sections and expected to have two different sets of measurements.

However, although this expedition sounds like a relaxing tour about floating on the Amazon River, it’s far from it. The Amazon River crosses through the Amazon Rainforest, meaning substantial risk of wild animal attacks from jaguars, anacondas, poisonous frogs, etc. But those aren’t even what the researchers fear the most. It’s the “human interaction” that poses the greatest danger. The expedition will be crossing through areas known for drug trafficking and illegal mining operations, so the organizing team is communicating with local authorities for armed escorts through those areas. Besides that, the boat cabins will get fitted with arrow and bulletproof fibre materials. Just thinking about the unpredictable dangers of this expedition makes me have goosebumps.

So what do you think? Is the Amazon indeed longer than the Nile? As it is in the old saying, in this world, nothing is certain except death and brave explorers taking risks in the name of science. That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you for reading, and remember to share and subscribe to not miss out on the latest.