The lifeblood of mainland Southeast Asia, feeding one of the richest inland fisheries on Earth.
Length
4,350 km
Source
Tibetan Plateau
Mouth
South China Sea (Mekong Delta)
Continent
Asia
Countries
China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam
Did you know?
The Mekong supports the world's largest inland fishery and some of the biggest freshwater fish ever caught, including giant catfish.
Little-known fact
Each year the Mekong forces the Tonlé Sap river in Cambodia to reverse direction, flooding a lake to several times its dry-season size.
Highlights
- Richest inland fishery on Earth
- Home to giant freshwater fish
- Reverses a river every year
Life in the Mekong
The fish and animals, waterbirds and water plants — including some of the rarest — that this water supports.
Animals & fish
Eurasian otter
A sleek, playful hunter whose return to a river is a sign the water has run clean again.
Waterbirds
Sarus crane
The tallest flying bird on Earth; its lifelong pairs dance and call in duet across Asian wetlands.
Common kingfisher
A dazzling blue-and-orange dart that plunges from a perch to spear fish in an instant.
Grey heron
A patient, statue-still angler that stalks the shallows of rivers and lakes across the Old World.
Water plants & reeds
Sacred lotus
A revered Asian water plant whose leaves are so water-repellent that dirt rolls straight off them.
Water hyacinth
A beautiful but notorious free-floating weed that can choke entire waterways in a matter of weeks.
Mangrove
Salt-tolerant trees whose stilted roots build the nurseries of the great river deltas.
Interactive · 3D journey
Journey of a river · source → sea
Every river runs the same great journey — from an icy mountain spring, down through gorges and looping meanders, to a wide delta where it meets the sea. Tap a stage to follow the water downstream.
Tip: hover to tilt the valley · tap a stage to float downstream
The Source
Every river begins high up — in a mountain spring, a melting glacier or a boggy upland. The water is cold, clear and fast, tumbling down the steepest ground of its whole journey.
Landforms here