The Mekong or Mekong River (UK: mee-KONG, US: may-KAWNG) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and a drainage area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through Southwest China (where it is officially called the Lancang River), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult, though the river remains a major trade route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in the 2000s through the 2020s has caused serious problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought.
Names The Mekong was originally called Mae Nam Khong from a contracted form of Kra-Dai shortened to Mae Khong. In Thai and Lao, Mae Nam ("Mother of Water[s]") is used for large rivers and Khong is the proper name referred to as "River Khong". However, Khong is an archaic word meaning "river", loaned from Austroasiatic languages, such as Vietnamese sông, Katu karuːŋ, May ʑuːŋ³, and Mon kruŋ, all which derived from Proto-Austroasiatic root *krɔːŋ, meaning "river", which led to Chinese 江 whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as /*kˤroŋ/ and which long served as the proper name of the Yangtze before becoming a generic word for major rivers. To the early European traders, the Mekong River was also known as Mekon River, May-Kiang River and Cambodia River. Historian William Dalrymple suggests that Mekong comes from "Mā Gaṅgā" (Khmer: ម៉ែគង្គា ; UNGEGN: Mê Kôngkéa) which means Mother Ganges. Hindus think of the river Ganges as mother. The local names for the river include:
From Thai: Thai: แม่น้ำโขง, romanized: mɛ̂ɛ-náam-kǒong, [mɛ̂ː náːm kʰǒːŋ], or just แม่โขง, mɛ̂ɛ-kǒong [mɛ̂ː kʰǒːŋ]. Northern Thai: ᨶᩣᩴ᩶ᩯᨾ᩵ᨡᩬᨦ, [náːm mɛ̂ː kʰɔːŋ], or just ᨶᩣᩴ᩶ᨡᩬᨦ [náːm kʰɔːŋ]. Northeastern Thai: แม่น้ำของ, [mɛ̄ː na᷆ːm kʰɔ̌ːŋ], or just แม่ของ [mɛ̄ː kʰɔ̌ːŋ]. Lao: ແມ່ນ້ຳຂອງ, romanized: mǣ nam khǭng, [mɛ̄ː nâːm kʰɔ̌ːŋ], or just ນ້ຳຂອງ, nam khǭng [nâːm kʰɔ̌ːŋ]. Tai Lue: น้ำแม่ของ [nâːm mɛː kʰɔ̌ːŋ], น้ำของ [nâːm kʰɔ̌ːŋ]. Shan: ၼမ်ႉၶွင်, romanized: nâ̰m khǎung [nâm.kʰɔ̌ŋ] or ၼမ်ႉမႄႈၶွင်, nâ̰m māae khǎung [nâm.mɛ.kʰɔ̌ŋ]. Other: In Vietnamese, the river was originally referred to as Sông Khung or Khung Giang (chữ Hán: 穹江, [ʂɔŋ˧ xuŋ˧], [xuŋ˧ zaŋ˧]) in classical Vietnamese texts (Đại Nam thực lục). Modern terms Sông Mê Kông ([ʂɔŋ˧ me˧ koŋ˧]) or Sông Cửu Long, (九龍 Nine Dragons River [ʂɔŋ˧ kɯu˧˩˧ lɔŋ˧]). Mandarin Chinese: 湄公河, romanized: Méigōng Hé [meɪ̯³⁵ kʊŋ⁵⁵ xɤ³⁵]. Burmese: မဲခေါင်မြစ်, romanized: mai:hkaungmrac, IPA: [mɛ́ɡàʊɰ̃ mjɪ̰ʔ]. Khmer: ទន្លេធំ Tônlé Thum [tɔnlei tʰum] (lit. "Big River" or "Great River") or មេគង្គ Mékôngk [meːkɔŋ], ទន្លេមេគង្គ Tônlé Mékôngk [tɔnlei meikɔŋ]. Khmuic: [ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊], 'ŏ̞m̥' means 'river' or 'water', here it means 'river', 'kʰrɔːŋ̊' means 'canal'. So 'ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊' means 'canal river'. In the ancient time Khmuic people called it '[ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊ ɲă̞k̥]' or '[ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊ ɟru̞ːʔ]' which means 'giant canal river' or 'deep canal river' respectively.
Course The Mekong rises as the Za Qu (Tibetan: རྫ་ཆུ་, Wylie: rDza chu, ZWPY: Za qu; Chinese: 扎曲; pinyin: Zā Qū) and soon becomes known as the Lancang River (simplified Chinese: 澜沧江; traditional Chinese: 瀾滄江; pinyin: Láncāng Jiāng, from the Lao kingdom Lan Xang; the characters may also be literally understood as "turbulent green river"). It originates in the "three rivers source area" on the Tibetan Plateau in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. The reserve protects the headwaters of (from north to south) the Yellow (Huang He), the Yangtze, and the Mekong rivers. It flows through the Tibet Autonomous Region and then southeast into Yunnan Province, and then the Three Parallel Rivers area in the Hengduan Mountains, along with the Yangtze to its east and the Salween River (Nu Jiang in Chinese) to its west. Then the Mekong meets the China–Myanmar border and flows about 10 km (6 mi) along that border until it reaches the tripoint of China, Myanmar and Laos. From there it flows southwest and forms the border of Myanmar and Laos for about 100 km (60 mi) until it arrives at the tripoint of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. This is also the confluence with the Ruak River (which follows the Thai–Myanmar border). The area of this tripoint is sometimes termed the Golden Triangle, although the term also refers to the much larger area of those three countries that was notorious as an opium-producing region. From the Golden Triangle tripoint, the Mekong turns southeast form the border of Laos with Thailand for 920 km (570 mi) until the Khong Chiam district in northeastern Thailand. Khon Pi Long is a series of rapids along a 1.6 km (1.0 mi) section dividing Chiang Rai in Thailand and Bokeo province in Laos. The name of the rapids means 'where the ghost lost its way'. It then turns east into the interior of Laos, flowing first east and then south for some 400 km (250 mi) before meeting the border with Thailand again. Once more, it defines the Laos–Thailand border for some 850 km (530 mi) as it flows first east, passing Vientiane, then turns south. A second time, the river leaves the border and flows east into Laos passing Pakse. The river turns and runs more or less directly south, crossing into Cambodia. At Phnom Penh the river is joined on the right bank by the river and lake system Tonlé Sap. When the Mekong is low, the Tonlé Sap is a tributary and it flows into the Mekong. When the Mekong floods, the flow reverses, with the floodwaters flowing up the Tonlé Sap. South of Phnom Penh, the Bassac River branches off the right (west) bank. The Bassac is the first and main distributary of the Mekong. This is the beginning of the Mekong Delta. The two rivers, the Bassac to the west and the Mekong to the east, enter Vietnam shortly after this and the Mekong is called the Tiền River or Tiền Giang. Additional distributaries include Mỹ Tho River, Ba Lai River, Hàm Luông River, and Cổ Chiên River.
Drainage basin
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