Rivers of the World Episode Rating Graph

In Venezuela, one of the world's largest deltas forms a gateway to Latin America. After Christopher Columbus, the Orinoco was the course followed by the conquistadors who pushed ever further upriver in their search for the mythical Eldorado. Today, the descendants of the survivors of the Spanish invasion live on the banks of the river. Travelling up the Orinoco is like travelling through time, unearthing the secret roots of Latin America, from its founding myths in Ciudad Bolivar to the vestiges of its lost civilizations.

For all its 1,700 kilometres, the Okavango never reaches the sea. After rushing down from the heights of Angola and crossing Namibia, it empties into the Kalahari Desert. The Okavango winds round in an endless series of bends and channels transforming this arid land into a bountiful paradise for crocodiles, hippos and elephants and revealing its unique biodiversity and thriving wildlife.

Rising out of the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado flows for over 2,300 kilometres before arriving in Mexico, from where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. It rolls majestically across America's mineral-rich western plains, whose breath-taking immensity have an unreal quality. As it moves from Monument Valley to the Grand Canyon, the Colorado weaves through a landscape as if from another world.