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Nilwala River

The 883rd longest river in the world

km

The Nilwala is a river in Southern Province in Sri Lanka. It originates in Sinharaja Forest Reserve and discharges into the sea at Matara. There is no consensus on how this river got its name. It is believed that the river got its name because, in the past, the river's water was very pure blue and flowed like a blue cloud. The Nilwala River was mentioned as Neelavahini and Neelawalanadi River in ancient sources. The most straight forward meaning is 'blue bearer,' 'Blue River. The river is 72 km (45 mi) long and has a drainage basin of 922 km2 (356 sq mi).

Flows through: Sri Lanka.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.

Other major rivers

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  2. Nile6,650 km
  3. Yangtze River6,300 km
  4. Bian River5,806 km
  5. Yellow River5,464 km
  6. Paraná River4,880 km
  7. River Congo4,700 km
  8. Mekong River4,350 km