Fig. 3: A map of the Niger River
The Niger River begins in Tembakounda, Guinea, only 240 miles northeast of the ocean. But, instead of flowing down to the ocean, it goes the other way down through Guinea, into Mali, where a steep drop in gradient, or level of the hill, causes an inland delta, one of the only of its kind in the world. The river than boomerangs South-East, into Niger. The Niger then flows through Nigeria, before creating another Delta, and emptying into the atlantic. In total, the Niger river is 4 180 km long, and has an average discharge rate of 5 589 m3/s. The size of it's drainage basin is 2 117 700 km2. The river is as old as the Nile, however, it starts in a rocky area, so it does not pick up as much sediment. It is actually 10 times clearer than the Nile! (Wikipedia)