- Bahr el Ghazal River
The Bahr el Ghazal (also spelled Bahr al Ghazal; Arabic: بحر الغزال) is a
river in southernSudan . The name translates as "river of gazelles". The Sudanese region ofBahr el Ghazal takes its name from the river.The Bahr el Ghazal is the main western
tributary of theNile . It is convert|716|km|mi long, flowing through theSudd wetlands toLake No , where it joins theWhite Nile .cite web | url= http://www.library.eb.com/eb/article-9011785 | title= Bahr al-Ghazal | accessdate= 2008-01-21 | work= Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition | publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica]Hydrology
The Bahr al Ghazal's
drainage basin is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 km² (200,800 mi²) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m³/s (70 ft³/s) annually, due to tremendous volumes of water being lost in the Sudd wetlands. [cite book |last= Shahin |first= Mamdouh |title= Hydrology and Water Resources of Africa |year= 2002 |publisher= Springer |isbn= 140200866X |pages= pp. 276, 287-288; online at [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZmdYFTlcSgEC Google Books] ] Seasonally, the river's discharge ranges from nothing to 48 m³/s (1,700 ft³/s).According to some sources, the river is formed by the confluence of the
Jur River andBahr al-Arab rivers. However other more recent sources say the river forms in theSudd wetlands with no definitive source, that the Jur River joins at Lake Ambadi, and the Bahr al-Arab joins below that. [cite book |last= Shahin |first= Mamdouh |title= Hydrology and Water Resources of Africa |year= 2002 |publisher= Springer |isbn= 140200866X |pages= p. 276; online at [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZmdYFTlcSgEC Google Books] ] The river'sdrainage basin , including its tributaries, is convert|851459|km2|sqmi and reaches west to the border of theCentral African Republic and northwest to theDarfur region.History
The river was first mapped in 1772 by French geographer
Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville , although it was vaguely known to early Greek geographers.ee also
*
List of rivers of Sudan References
External links
* [http://www.bartleby.com/65/ba/BahrelGh.html Bahr-el-Ghazal] , The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
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