Cross River (native name: Oyono) is the main

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

in southeastern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and gives its name to

Cross River State ) , image_map = Nigeria - Cross River.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location of Cross River State in Nigeria , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint ...

. It originates in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...

, where it takes the name of the

Manyu River The Manyu River rises near Wabanein the Upper Banyang Subdivision of the Manyu Department of the Southwest Region, Cameroon. The river runs past the southern border of the Mone River Forest Reserve. Below Mamfe, it is joined by rivers drain ...

. Although not long by African standards its

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

has high rainfall and it becomes very wide. Over its last to the sea it flows through

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

with numerous creeks and forms an inland delta near its confluence with the Calabar River, about wide and long between the cities of Oron on the west bank and

Calabar Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was originally named Akwa Akpa, in the Efik language. The city is adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers and c ...

, on the east bank, more than from the open sea. The delta empties into a broad estuary which it shares with a few smaller rivers. At its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean, the estuary is wide. The eastern side of the estuary is in the neighbouring country of Cameroon. The major tributary of Cross river is the river Aloma coming from

Benue State Benue State is one of the North Central states in Nigeria with a population of about 4,253,641 in 2006 census. The state was created in 1976 among the 7 states created at that time.The state derives its name from the Benue River which is t ...

to merge with the Cross River in Cross River State. Cross River State is connected with a major highway to its sister state

Akwa Ibom Akwa Ibom State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The state takes its name from the Qua Ib ...

. The distance between Oron and Calabar is by boat and about by road. The population of the lower Cross River traditionally use water transport and Calabar has long had a major

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

, in the Calabar River about from its confluence with the Cross River and about from the sea. The Itu bridge on the Cross River is along Itu-Calabar highway and is reported to be one of the landmark achievements of the

Gowon Gowon or Go Won may refer to: * Yakubu Gowon (born 1934), head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria 1966-1975 * Kowon County, North Korea * "Go Won", a single formally introducing the eleventh member of Loona * Go Won, singer in South Kor ...

administration when it was completed in 1975. Кросс-ривер

The Cross River forms a boundary between two

tropical moist forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

s: the Cross-Niger transition forests, which lie west of the river between the Cross and

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesCross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests, which lie to the east between the Cross River and the Sanaga River of Cameroon. The average annual rainfall varies from 1,760 mm in the northern part of the state to 3,100 mm in the southern part (WSSSRP II 2016). Cross River state contingent

Cross River also gives its name to a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

and a

family of languages A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in ...

. The Cross River Region is of great historical importance, being a) adjacent to the likely homeland from which

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle * Black Association for Nationa ...

speaking people migrated across most of Sub-Saharan Africa 3000-5000 years ago, b) the location of where the Nsibidi Script was created, and c) the location of Calabar, one of the largest centres during the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and ...

References

External links

Nigerian Tourism, Cross Rivers State

Little genetic differentiation as assessed by uniparental markers in the presence of substantial language variation in peoples of the Cross River region of Nigeria

Rivers of Nigeria Cross River State Rivers of Cameroon ca:Riu Cross {{Nigeria-river-stub