Gambia River summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Gambia River.

Gambia River, River, western Africa. Rising in Guinea and flowing northwest through Senegal and west through The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean, it is 700 mi (1,120 km) long. It is the only western African river that is easily accessible to oceangoing shipping. From its source in the highlands of the Fouta Djallon, it follows a winding course to its mouth, which is a ria, or drowned estuary. The flats of the middle and upper river support rice and peanuts and are more heavily settled than the area around the river’s lower course.

river Summary

River, (ultimately from Latin ripa, “bank”), any natural stream of water that flows in a channel with defined banks . Modern usage includes rivers that are multichanneled, intermittent, or ephemeral in flow and channels that are practically bankless. The concept of channeled surface flow, however,

A map of the continent of Africa, including its countries, boundaries, and capital cities. It also shows parts of Europe and Asia and surrounding bodies of water, including the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.

Africa Summary

Africa, the second largest continent (after Asia), covering about one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. The continent is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters