Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (Brahmaputra)

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Adventurers call Tibet's Yarlung Tsangpo the "Everest of Rivers" for a good reason. Stretches of it are some of the least-explored places in the world, and tales of failed expeditions abound. With headwaters in western Tibet near Mount Kailash, the river has the highest average elevation, 4,000 meters (13,000 feet), of any major river in the world.

 

For much of the river's 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) course, it flows east through open valleys on the Tibetan Plateau. But at the eastern end of the Himalayas in southeastern Tibet, the river bends sharply, rushes through one of the most dramatic gorges in the world, and descends to the lowlands of the Ganges Delta.

 

Superlatives define the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge. Carved into granitic bedrock, it reaches more than 5,300 meters (17,000 feet) from top to bottom in some places, making it three times deeper than the Grand Canyon. It's also one of the world's longest canyons, stretching more than 500 kilometers (300 miles).

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