Before the advent of the highway, the railway, and the airplane, the rivers were the major routes used for trade, migration, agriculture, and the exchange of cultures. It is a fact that many of the earliest human settlements were founded near the rivers, where the fertile floodplains provided the support for agriculture, allowing people to live in the often inhospitable environments provided by the rivers. Even today, the longest rivers in the world are the major ecological and economic routes on the planet. From the Amazonian rainforests to the African plains, from the Siberian snows to the Middle Eastern deserts, the longest rivers are the major routes that cover hundreds of kilometers and several nations. Here are the 10 longest rivers in the world, each of them notable not just for their length but for their importance to the development of the surrounding lands.
