Ayeyarwaddy (ဧရာဝတီမ္ရစ)
Irrawady
Temporary farming settlements on islands of Ayeyarwady River
Country	Myanmar
Major city	Mandalay
Length	2,170 km (1,348 mi)
Watershed	411,000 km² (158,688 mi²)
Primary source	Mali
Other source	N'Mai

The Ayeyarwady River or Irrawaddy River (Burmese: ဧရာဝတီမ္ရစ္; MLCTS: ei: ra wa. ti mrac) is a river that flows through Burma (Myanmar). It is Myanmar's largest river (about 1350 miles or 2170 km long) and its most important commercial waterway, with a drainage area of about 158,700 square miles (411,000 km²). Image File history File links Ayeyarwadyriver. ... Mandalay (Burmese: ) is the second largest city in Myanmar (formerly Burma) with a population of 927,000 (2005 census), agglomeration 2,5 million. ... km redirects here. ... A mile is a unit of length, usually used to measure distance, in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, United States customary units and Norwegian/Swedish mil. ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... A square mile is an English unit of area equal to that of a square with sides each 1 statute mile (≈1,609 m) in length. ... Image File history File links Irrawaddy_watershed. ... This article or section uses Burmese characters which may be rendered incorrectly. ... For the term related to television programmes, see watershed (television). ...

The Ayeyarwaddy River starts in Kachin State, at the confluence of the Mali Hka and N'Mai Hka rivers. The western Mali Hka branch arises from the end of the southern Himalayas, north of Putao, and (like the main river) is called Nam Kiu in the Shan language. Kachin State (Jingphaw Mungdan), is the northernmost state of Myanmar. ... The Mali River (Mali Hka) is a river that originates in northern Myanmar. ... Perspective view of the Himalaya and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... Putao is a city of Kachin State, Myanmar and is the site of the World War II British Fort Hertz. ... The Shan (Burmese: ; IPA: ; Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ) are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. ...

Built in 1934, the Ava Bridge near Sagaing, Myanmar, was the only bridge over the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River until 1998.

The Ayeyarwaddy River bisects the country from north to south and empties through a nine-armed delta into the Indian Ocean. In colonial times, before railways and automobiles, the river was known as the "Road to Mandalay". Although navigable by large vessels to Myitkyina for a distance over 1600 km from the ocean, the river is also full of sandbanks and islands, making such navigation difficult. For many years, the only bridge built to cross the Ayeyarwady River was the Inwa Bridge. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 525 pixelsFull resolution (900 × 591 pixel, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 525 pixelsFull resolution (900 × 591 pixel, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Sagaing (population estimate 300,000) is the chief city and capital of Sagaing Division in Myanmar. ... Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. ... Mandalay (Burmese: ) is the second largest city in Myanmar (formerly Burma) with a population of 927,000 (2005 census), agglomeration 2,5 million. ... Myitkyina is a city, and the capital of Kachin State in Myanmar, located 919miles from Yangon, or 487 miles from Mandalay. ...

The names Irrawaddy and Ayeyarwady are believed to have derived either from the Sanskrit name Iravati, a sacred river and minor goddess in Indian mythology, or from her son Airavata, the elephant mount of Indra. The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Iravati (irāvatī in IAST transliteration) is a character in the mythology of India. ... In Hinduism, Airavata (ऐरावत) is a white elephant who carries Lord Indra. ... Indra (Sanskrit: इन्द्र or इंद्र, indra) is the god of weather and war, and lord of Svargaloka in Hinduism. ...

The Irrawaddy gives its name to a dolphin, the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevistosus), which is found in the river. Though sometimes called the Irrawaddy River Dolphin, it is not a true river dolphin, since it is also found at sea. Genera See article below. ... Binomial name Orcaella brevirostris Gray, 1866 Irrawaddy Dolphin range The Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) is a species of dolphin found near coasts and in estuaries in parts of south-east Asia. ... Families See text River dolphins are four species of dolphin which reside in freshwater rivers and estuaries. ...

External links

• Pandaw Ayeyarwady River Cruies
• NASA Earth Observatory