Stop 1 · Netherlands
Rotterdam
The Rhine drains eight countries into this delta. The port handles around 440 million tonnes a year — more than the rest of the Low Countries combined.
Ports at the mouth of a great river
Each stop grew where an enormous river finally meets the sea — and each became its region's doorway to the world because of it.
The five stops
Stop 2 · China
Guangzhou
The Pearl River delta is the largest urban area on earth by population. Its old English name, Canton, gave the language and the cuisine their names in English.
Stop 3 · India
Kolkata
It sits on the Hooghly, a western arm of the Ganges. The main channel long ago swung east into Bangladesh, and the city has been silting up ever since.
Stop 4 · Brazil
Belém
The Amazon's mouth is so wide it contains an island the size of Switzerland. The river discharges a fifth of all the fresh water entering the world's oceans.
Stop 5 · Iraq
Basra
The Tigris and Euphrates join upstream to form the Shatt al-Arab. Marshland drained in the 1990s at the delta's edge has been partly reflooded since 2003.
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