Location and length of the Mississippi River. One of the world's greatest rivers, the Mississippi River

Where is the Mississippi River, the largest in North America and the USA, its source and mouth, what is its length and significance for the state? History of development and interesting facts information about this waterway will be useful for tourists, schoolchildren and curious people.

Geographic data and name

The Mississippi is the “greatest river” in the USA, being the third longest in the world (3950 km, together with the Missouri - 6420 km). It flows through the territory of 10 states, being at the same time the border between many of them. Conventionally, it is divided into 2 parts:

Upper - from Lake Itasca, located in the territory National Nature Reserve(Minnesota) at an altitude of 450 m, where the source of the Mississippi River is located, to the place where the river flows into it. Ohio.
The lower one is from Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. This is exactly where the mouth of the Mississippi River is located and where it flows into Atlantic Ocean.

Its largest tributaries are the Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Day Moines (left) and Red River (right), of which the Missouri is considered one of the largest on the planet. The name of the river was given by local Indians of the Ojibwe tribe living in the Great Lakes region. The literal translation of the words misi-ziibi means “great river”.

History of discovery and development

The first European who was lucky enough to see this river was the conquistador from Spain Hernando de Soto, who crossed it in 1541. According to other sources, the Mississippi was put on the Spanish map in 1518, after the expedition entered the delta. Its name in Spanish sounded like “river of the holy spirit.”

It was first explored by French travelers in 1681-1682, one of whom, R. de la Salle, was able to sail along it from beginning to end. After this, France declared all the lands included in the lowlands to be its own possessions and gave them the name “Louisiana”. Given the length and vast areas where the Mississippi River is located, it quickly became important water artery, along which the French transported the necessary goods and people on barges.

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was concluded, according to which the territory east of the mouth was transferred to England, and to the west - Spain. In 1800, the Spanish part of Louisiana was purchased by France, which resold it to the United States. In 1815, America was able to annex its British part after the Battle of New Orleans. So, answering the question about which country and where the Mississippi River is located, it would be correct to name the USA.

Navigation on the Mississippi River

The heyday of shipping on the Mississippi began in 1811, when the first paddle steamer was launched on the river, transporting goods between the cities of New Orleans and Ohio. Gradually the number of steamships increased, and the river became the busiest waterway on the entire continent. According to statistics, by 1850, 5 thousand passenger and cargo ships were plying along the river, and 6 years later the first bridge was built across which railway.

With the advent of the bridge from Rock Island to Davenport, which began to interfere with steamship traffic, problems began with lawsuits. Then an incident occurred when one of the sailing ships rammed one of the parts of the bridge, and a fire started. The litigation turned into a multi-year battle and gradually led to a decrease in the number of water transport. By 1910, only 560 steamships were already sailing along the Mississippi, but transporting heavy cargo by water turned out to be more profitable than by rail, and the river still remains an important transport artery of the United States.

Mississippi River system

The territory where the Mississippi River is located, together with its tributaries, covers 31 states and forms a huge water basin with an area of 3270 square meters. km (40% of the entire US territory, not counting Alaska). On the upper half the river flows through big lakes, forming rapids in some places. Locks (more than 20) were built from Minneapolis; in the middle the Mississippi flows in a wide channel (the floodplain is up to 15 km).

Greatest River Delta North America covers an area of 32 thousand square meters. km and moves into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It is divided into 6 large branches flowing into the bay. Due to the fact that the beginning of the Mississippi is located in the Rocky Mountains, winter time Most of the river is covered with ice.

The length of navigable routes in the river system is 25 thousand km. The largest port cities: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Davenport.

Economic importance of the river

Modern shipping on the Mississippi is very developed and diverse. Up to 300 million tons of cargo are transported along the river annually: oil reserves, coal, chemical and agricultural products. The river provides 16% of all fish products in the USA: fish, shrimp, crayfish and oysters. Rice, cotton, sugar cane and soybean plantations flourish in the Mississippi River delta and where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Many beautiful bridges have been built across the river; there are 7 national parks. Now they are attractions that tourists enjoy visiting when traveling along the Mississippi.
The name of the river is inextricably linked with the work of the writer Mark Twain, who populated his books with heroes living and working on it. The author even took his literary pseudonym from the vocabulary of river workers who measured the depth of the fairway. It literally translates as “mark two.”
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Mississippi became the cradle of American jazz: tourist ships sailed along it, on board which an orchestra always played, including the participation of the famous Louis Armstrong.

Mississippi (Mississippi) - in the language of the local Indians - big river, a river in the USA, one of greatest rivers peace. It is believed to have been discovered by Hernando de Soto in 1541 and rediscovered by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet in 1673 as they traveled down the Wisconsin River to its mouth. Legend claims that the local Indians urged the explorers not to move further, because there they would inevitably die from river demons and giant fish. Mark Twain suggested that the Indians were referring specifically to the paddlefish ( big fish more than two meters long and weighing more than fifty kilograms).

The length of the river is 3950 km (from the source of the Missouri - 6420 km), the basin area extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, 3268 thousand square kilometers. This represents forty percent of the area of the United States, not including Alaska.

The largest right tributaries are the Minnesota, Des Moines, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River; left - Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio. The Mississippi originates in the north of the country, with its source at Nicolette Creek, crosses the territory of the United States from north to south and flows into the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vast delta. The Mississippi Valley was developed in the direction of the main flow of waters of the Quaternary glaciation of North America.

The Mississippi carries an average of about 360 million tons of sediment to the sea per year. At the end of the delta, the river branches into six main relatively short branches, 20-40 km long, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. The main one is the South West Pass (southwest branch).

The river is fed by mixed snow and rain. The Mississippi regime is characterized by spring and summer floods. Flash floods occur when snow melts in the upper Mississippi and Missouri basins coincide with heavy rainfall. Particularly catastrophic floods in the Mississippi basin were observed in 1844, 1903, 1913, 1927, 1937, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1965.

The Mississippi is a convenient waterway from the Gulf of Mexico to the central parts of the continent. The most important transport artery of the United States, connecting developed industrial areas with agricultural areas of the country.

River navigation goes to the city of Saint Paul (for more than three thousand kilometers), ocean vessels rise to the city of Baton Rouge. The length of shipping routes throughout the Mississippi-Missouri system is more than 25 thousand km.

The Mississippi is the greatest river not only in America, but throughout the world. Only in length from source to delta is it inferior to the Nile. Its length, together with its main tributary, the Missouri, is 6215 kilometers. In terms of its basin, it surpasses even the Nile. The Mississippi Basin covers an area of 3,248 thousand square kilometers! Although in this it is surpassed by the other greatest river of America, however, the South - the Amazon. Large and small rivers flow into the Mississippi from the ancient forested Appalachian Mountains and from the highest rocky ridges of the Cordillera; the space from the Great Lakes in the north to the blue expanses of the Gulf of Mexico in the south is the entire Mississippi basin.

If you look at a map, you will see that the Mississippi with all its tributaries looks like giant tree with a widely spread and branched crown. About half of the country's total population lives on the banks of the river and its tributaries.

The river is fed mainly due to the favorable snow and rain regime. In general, due to different climatic conditions the eastern and western parts of the river basin differ in water features. The right tributaries descend and flow from the Rocky Mountains through arid areas. This is why even after its merger with the Missouri, the Mississippi remains relatively shallow. Big river it becomes only after its confluence with the Ohio River. Below the confluence of the Ohio, the Mississippi increases water flow by 1.5 times. That is why the regime of the river in the lower reaches is largely determined by the regime of the Ohio River. If the period of snow melting in the Appalachians coincides with maximum precipitation, then the river level in Ohio rises by 15 - 20 meters, in the lower reaches of the Mississippi - by 5 - 6 meters. And this leads to flooding of a significant part of the floodplain.

In the Indian language, "Mississippi" means "big river", "father of waters". The Mississippi is the deepest river in North America. It carries 2.5 times more water into the Gulf of Mexico than our Volga into the Caspian Sea.

In terms of its role in the life of the American people, the Mississippi has the same significance as the Volga for the Russian people. No wonder the Indians who once lived on its banks called the Mississippi the father of waters. In the upper section, the river first flows through small lakes; There are rapids and rocky rifts, the most significant of which are located near the cities. Minneapolis (St. Anthony Falls), Davenport and Keokak. From Minneapolis the river bed is locked, and there are more than 20 dams to the mouth of the Missouri. In the middle section, the river flows predominantly in one channel; the valley is 10-15 km wide and is limited by steep slopes. Below the confluence of the Missouri, the muddy, dirty-brown water of this river flows for 150-180 km next to the relatively clear stream of the Mississippi. In the lower section, the river flows through a vast plain composed of alluvial deposits; the width of the valley gradually increases downstream from 25 to 70-100 km; The river bed is winding, with numerous branches and oxbow lakes, forming in the lower reaches a labyrinth of channels, oxbow lakes, and vast floodplain swamps that are flooded during floods. Almost along the entire section, the channel is bordered by natural bank ramparts, strengthened for flood protection by a system of artificial dams (with a total length of over 4 thousand km); the river flows between the shafts in places above the surface of the floodplain. Below the city of Baton Rouge, a lobe-shaped river delta begins, occupying an area of about 32 thousand km2, moving into the sea in places by 85-100 m per year.

The Mississippi wanders for a long time among forests, lakes and swamps, then crosses a high plateau, emerges into a spacious fertile lowland created by its own sediment, and rolls its mighty waters along it to the Gulf of Mexico.

Previously, the Mississippi flooded widely across the lowlands, flooding the surrounding area for tens of kilometers. Then people built high earthen dams and narrowed the width of the stream to 1 - 3 km. Dams now accompany the river and the beds of some of its tributaries for many thousands of kilometers. When it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi forms one of the largest globe an extensive, rapidly growing delta and deposition of clastic material - pebbles, gravel, sand and others.

And yet, the Mississippi and its tributaries the Missouri and Ohio experience floods so severe that they become truly national disasters.

Now the prairies are plowed up and the forests are cut down. But what large areas were freed from the forest, the less water became in the rivers, and its rise during floods became more abrupt, with frequently recurring floods.

In addition, the lower Mississippi is in the path of "big storms" - warm, moist winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico. When warm air from the south meets cold air masses arriving here from the polar countries, showers and floods occur on rivers.

During the ten-year period from 1940 to 1950, for example, the Mississippi Basin experienced about 100 floods, five of them particularly severe.

Powerful modern technology, a whole army engineers and years of experience in flood control calmed unruly rivers. In the upper reaches of the Mississippi, before the Missouri flows into it, locks were built, creating a kind of staircase of 26 steps. Large ships now sail here. From Mississippi they can pass into the Great Lakes system, and along the Hudson River they can reach New York.

The Mississippi has become a busy highway - a large waterway connecting the northern states of the country with their vast fields and industrial areas and the southern states - a huge cotton-growing region. Day and night, steamships go up and down, huge caravans of barges sail by, loaded with coal, iron, timber, grain, many industrial products and various products. agriculture. 3 thousand km is the length of the navigable part of the Mississippi, and if we take into account the tributaries, this figure will increase to 25 thousand km.

The lives of individual segments of the population living on the banks of the great American river develop differently. Workers work in factories, factories, mines, fields, build roads, houses, dams. Agricultural workers provide the population with food, and industrial enterprises with the necessary raw materials. However, the position of the worker and the farmer is very precarious: the first can be fired from his job by the capitalist, the second can go bankrupt. This fate befell many. They make up a huge army of unemployed people, whose lot is poverty and hunger.

Blacks live many times worse. These people are subjected to humiliating racial discrimination. Negro longshoremen, cotton pickers, masons, and laborers work hard on the banks of the Mississippi. Turning to the great river, they pour out their grief in sad songs: “O Mississippi, father of waters! Why don’t you see our suffering, don’t hear the groans of our wives and the crying of our children? Why don’t you know how hard it is for a black man to live on your shores?”

The best black singers sing for the whole world the folk song "Mississippi", in which one can hear endless sorrow and indignation. The songs of the working people are sounding more and more invitingly on the banks of the Mississippi. They call for a fight for a bright future, freedom and happiness for everyone ordinary people world - white, black, colored.

Mississippi Length: 5,985 kilometers.

Mississippi basin area: 3,220,000 square kilometers.

Where does the Mississippi flow? the largest and most important river in North America, the 4th longest river in the world: if we take the Missouri River as its origin, its flow length is 6530 km; the area, it and its tributaries, is equal to 3,100,000 square kilometers. The Mississippi originates in northern Minnesota from Lake Itasca, which lies at an altitude of 1,575 meters above sea level, at 47° and 95° west longitude. Its source was precisely found by the American Schoolkraust in 1832. From Lake Itasca, the Mississippi flows first north into Lake Traverse, where it receives several other rivers, and soon turns east and, flowing through Lake Cass and many other lakes, makes turns into in all possible directions to Cross Wing, from where it heads south. On its way to Minneapolis, the Mississippi forms the majestic St. Antonia, where shipping begins; here the river descends 66' in less than a length of 1.5 km, including its sheer drop from a height of 17'.

Going further south, a few kilometers from the city of St. Paul, the Mississippi forms the border of the state of Wisconsin and expands into the huge and picturesque Lake Pepin, bordered by vertical calcareous cliffs about 400` in height. Going further and further to the south, the river flows on the borders of the states of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana on the right, and on the left - the states of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. After a winding path, below New Orleans, the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico in 5 branches, at 29° northern latitude and 89°12` west longitude. Its most important tributaries are the Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas and Red River; besides them, it takes on the right: Minnesota, Iowa and De Moines, and on the left - Wisconsin and Illinois. The Missouri is longer than the Mississippi until its confluence, where the river is called the Upper Mississippi. The average amount of water discharged by the Mississippi per second is 675,000 cubic meters. ft. The width of the Mississippi at St. Louis is 1,070 meters, at 1,200 meters, at New Orleans 760 meters, between Cairo and the mouth of the Red River - an average of 1,300 meters, below the Red River - an average of 1,020 meters. greatest depth between the Red River and New Orleans - 4.5 meters. The average speed of the river between St. Louis and the Gulf of Mexico is 110 km per day. The Mississippi River valley contains a vast and fertile, only occasionally undulating; and the works of its southern part are very different from the northern. In the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, along its banks there are alluvial plains that lie below the water level and suffer from, although they are partly protected by artificial embankments and dams.

At the mouth The Mississippi forms a delta 320 km long and 300 km wide, with an area of 31,860 square kilometers; 1/3 of this delta is occupied by swamps and lakes; sandy shoals greatly impede navigation at the mouth, as a result of which the main branch of the South Pass is deepened to almost 7 m with the help of dams; The delta is crossed by many streams called "bayous", which receive their water from the Mississippi when it is in flood. The amount of silt carried by the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the calculations of Abbott and Homphrey, will amount to an average mass per year of an area of 1.5 square km.

Tributaries of the Mississippi: The largest right tributaries are the Minnesota, Des Moines, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River; left - Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio.

Mississippi Freeze: doesn't freeze.

Coordinates 47°14′23″ n. w. 95°12′27″ W d. HGIOL Coordinates 29°09′13″ n. w. 89°15′03″ W d. HGIOL Regions Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana

The source of the Mississippi is considered to be either Nicolette Creek or Lake Itasca, into which it flows. The source is located in Minnesota at an altitude of approximately 530 m above sea level. The river flows generally in a southerly direction and reaches a length of 3,770 kilometers, ending in a vast delta in the Gulf of Mexico. The river itself flows through 10 states, and its basin covers 31 states from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachian mountain system. The Mississippi ranks thirteenth on the list of the world's longest rivers, and river system Mississippi-Missouri is third and ninth on the list in terms of deep water. Mississippi is part of or intersects the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Upper Mississippi

The Upper Mississippi is divided into three parts: source, 793 km; to the source of St. Anthony Falls, a series of artificial lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis, Missouri, 1069 km, to the middle Mississippi, 310 km, the rest of the river, to the confluence of the Missouri River in St. Louis.

It is traditionally believed that the source of the Mississippi is located in Lake Itasca in the territory Itasca State Park, Minnesota, although the lake itself is fed by several streams.

There are 42 dams on this section of the river. Fourteen of them are located above Minneapolis and are used primarily for energy and recreational purposes. The remaining 28 dams are located in the city center and are used to support commercial navigation. Overall, these 42 dams have a profound impact on the ecology of the upper river.

The upper Mississippi basin includes 5 ecological regions, 3 biomes, and 3 physiographic regions (areas with a specific geomorphological type): the Laurentian Upland, the Central Lowland, and the Ozark Plateau. The upper Mississippi was already inhabited 9,000 years ago. The first explorers of this area can be considered the French Louis Juliette and Jacques Marquette, who arrived there in 1673.

Lower Mississippi

The area of the Lower Mississippi basin together with its tributaries is approximately 880 thousand square kilometers. The territories of the lower Mississippi were inhabited already 16 thousand years ago. The first explorer of the area was spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto. The Lower Mississippi Basin includes 3 physiographic regions: the Coastal Plain, the Ouachita Region, and the Ozark Plateau.

Pool

Mississippi has one of the largest basins in the world. Its area is approximately 3.27 million km², which is the third largest place in the world after the Amazon and the Congo, affecting the territory of 32 US states and two Canadian provinces, covering 41-42% of the territory of the United States. The Mississippi collects water from most of the space between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian mountain system. The path of the water flow from its source in Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico takes approximately 90 days.

Consumption

River water entering salt waters Gulf of Mexico does not mix with them immediately. Large masses of water can go around Florida and reach the coast of Georgiabefore finally mixing with ocean water.

Before 1900, the Mississippi carried up to 400 million tons of sediment per year. However, in the last two decades this volume has been only 145 million tons per year. Such a significant decrease is due to large-scale hydraulic engineering work on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio and their tributaries, when many dams and regulatory structures were built, channel and bank protection work was carried out, and programs were introduced to reduce soil erosion.

Channel changes

Throughout its history, the Mississippi has changed its course many times, both slightly and on a large scale. Also, numerous changes occurred with its tributaries, some of which disappeared, while others appeared. Due to a natural process known as avulsion or delta wandering, the lower Mississippi changes its location into the Gulf of Mexico approximately every thousand years. This is due to the fact that sediment accumulates in the channel, which causes the water to rise and find more shortcuts to the bay. The old channel gradually decreases, becomes overgrown and turns into a bayou (oxbow lake). This process has caused the coastline of southern Louisiana to move 25 to 80 kilometers into the Gulf over the past 5,000 years. The modern Mississippi Delta is called Birdfoot Delta(English birdfoot - “bird’s foot”) due to the similarity of shape, or Balize Delta, named after the first French settlement in the Mississippi Delta.

Prehistoric river directions

The Mississippi Basin was formed largely by Laurentian Glacier during the last ice age. Southern part This huge glacier reached the territory of the present United States and the Mississippi basin. As the glacier began to retreat, large layers of sediment formed a flat and fertile river valley. During the melting, the flowing water made its way into the Mississippi Valley, creating river valleys Minnesota's James and Milk rivers. When the glacier fully retreated, many of those temporary streams made their way into Hudson Bay or the Atlantic Ocean, leaving Mississippi tributaries with hydrographic features that were too large for the remaining flow volume.

Changes in the channel in the modern period

In March 1876, the Mississippi suddenly changed direction around Reverie, separating a small part of Tipton County from Tennessee and annexing it to the Arkansas by one of its branches. Since this event was avulsion(the annexation of a piece of land to someone else’s property due to flooding or a change in the river bed), it was decided not to move the state border.

New Madrid seismic zone

New Madrid seismic zone, runs along the Mississippi near the city New Madrid, Missouri, between Memphis and St. Louis. The origin of the zone is due to the presence of aulacogen, which formed simultaneously with the Gulf of Mexico. The area is seismically active. New Madrid earthquake in 1811-1812, it had a force of about 8 on the Richter scale catastrophic consequences for the population. As a result of the earthquake, it was formed Reelfoot Lake(Tennessee), as well as the tremors, changed the flow of the river, which turned back for some time.

Tributaries and lakes

The longest tributary is the Missouri. The Missouri River, formed from the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, is the most long river in the United States. Along with the Irtysh, the Missouri is the world's largest tributary. Taken together, the Jefferson, Missouri and Mississippi form the longest river system in North America. The distance from the source of the Jefferson to the mouth of the Mississippi is 6,300 kilometers. The Arkansas River is the second longest tributary of the Mississippi River. The largest tributary is the Ohio River. The largest tributaries Mississippi are - Illinois (left), Des Moines, Red River (right).

Near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the river forms Lake Winnibigoshish, which extends more than 11 km in width. Also of note are Lake Onalaska, near La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the river is 6.4 km wide, and Lake Pepin is 3.2 km wide. The first two broad areas are a lake and a reservoir rather than free waters rivers. In other areas where the Mississippi (with the exception of Lake Pepin - it is more than 1.6 km wide in several places) is very wide, the river's waters remain free.

Discovery of the river by Europeans

The first European to reach the banks of the Mississippi is considered to be the Spaniard Hernando de Soto (1541), although there are other opinions. The first European to sail along the river was Robert de la Salle in 1681-1682. In 1518 or 1519, ships of the Spanish expedition of Alonso Alvarez Pineda entered the river delta, and at the end of October 1528, another Spanish expedition, Panfilo Narvaez, went to the Mississippi delta, which, like several of his companions, drowned in the waters of the river. The Spaniards called the river "River of the Holy Spirit" (Spanish. Rio del Espíritu Santo ; It is not known for sure who gave her this name - de Soto or one of his predecessors.

In the 17th century, French travelers began exploring the river. In 1682, the entire Mississippi lowland was declared a possession of France and was named Louisiana in honor of the French king Louis XIV. In 1718, 160 kilometers from the mouth, it was founded

Mississippi River

The pride of the USA is the Mississippi River. This is one of the longest and deep rivers peace. It flows from north to south and divides the country into two unequal parts. The trap is much larger than the eastern one. The mighty water stream crosses 10 states.
The boundaries of these administrative entities run along the middle of the river. For example, the lands of the state of Iowa stretch along the right bank, and the state of Illinois along the left. So, having crossed the river, you can find yourself on a land where completely different laws apply.

Famous river The Mississippi is a winding “snake” across the entire continent of North America. A symbol of the old American South, the cradle of jazz, the mighty river of the United States is firmly established in fiction and folk music, broke all records for floods and the number of dams. She - national pride and a national disaster at the same time.
Translated from the Ojibwe Indian language, misi-ziibi means “great river.”

The length of the Mississippi River is 2320 miles, which corresponds to 3734 km. This is the 10th largest river in the world among all the great rivers. But the river system of the Mississippi River (the river itself, plus its tributaries) is 6275 km, which corresponds to 4th place in the world after the Amazon, Nile and Yangtze.

The Mississippi River begins its journey across the North American continent from Lake Itasca. It is characterized by very clean and clear water.

The mighty river ends its journey in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This western part Atlantic. Mississippi crosses the states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana. The Mississippi River system, that is, the river itself and all its tributaries, covers 31 states.

In the upper reaches of the river (Minnesota) there are rapids, riffles and waterfalls. The largest waterfall is located near the city of St. Paul. It is called Saint Anthony, and the height of the water drop reaches 15 meters.

Further, the river path is more gentle. The banks are high cliffs hanging over the water surface. The further you go south, the lower the height of the cliffs. In Illinois, they no longer make the right impression. This relief contrasts with the Lower Mississippi, where the banks are mostly flat.

The width of the water flow gradually increases. In some places the distance from coast to coast is 2-2.2 km. Near New Orleans, the width of the river reaches 2.5 km. At its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico, the great river forms a delta. It reaches 300 km in width and 320 km in length.

The Mississippi River basin occupies a huge area and covers 40% of the United States. Large riverboats travel along the river as far as St. Louis. The Americans themselves are very proud of the mighty stream, majestically carrying its waters into the Atlantic.

In the works of famous American writers, many storylines develop on this river. More than any other famous name, the name of Mark Twain is associated with Mississippi. The tireless Samuel Clemens became a pilot on the river, and the river became one of Mark Twain's main characters.
He also called the river "the world's first deceiver." The river received this name due to its wayward flow. In the lower reaches, closer to the mouth, the river winds across the plain as it pleases. In just one spring, it can become either shorter or longer, changing its course, and with it the fates of the people who dared to settle on its troubled shores.

In the Mississippi River Valley you can find unique alligators and equally unique turtles. Flamingos, ibises and pelicans live in huge flocks near the water. In the green splendor of the Great River Basin, millions of miniature hummingbirds have found shelter and food.