Longest Rivers in the World Top 10 List

When asked, What is the longest river in the world? One cannot give you the exact answer
because there is no perfect measure of the length of a river. Rivers are not constant and there
have always been disputes about where the sources of certain rivers are. In fact there are still
arguments about whether or not the Nile is actually the longest river in the world as opposed to
the Amazon. Because of this, compiling a list of which rivers are recognized as the longest in the
world is difficult. Below is a list of what are generally considered the ten longest rivers in the
world.
The Nile has long been considered the longest river in the world. It is about
4,135 miles (6,650 km) in length and flows in a northward direction to where
it finally drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It passes through ten countries
on the continent of Africa, where it has been a main source of water and life
since ancient times. The Nile has two main contributories, the White Nile and
the Blue Nile. The White Nile is the longer of the two, but the Blue Nile feeds
the river more water.
The Amazon is approximately 3,980 miles (6,400km) in length and is known
as the second longest river in the world. It passes through seven countries in
South America and is actually the largest river in terms of volume and flow. In
fact, it accounts for one-fifth of the worlds river flow. For these reasons
scientists dispute that it should be considered the longest river in the world as
well, but this title is not yet theirs.
The Yangtze River (also called the Chang Jiang) is about 3,915 miles (6,380
km) in length and is considered the third longest river in the world. It is
located in the Peoples Republic of China and it flows from its source in the
Qinghai Province, to the East China Sea at Shanghai. Because it is the largest
river in this region it is important economically, historically and culturally. It
also id the home of the worlds largest hydro-electric power system, the Three
Gorges Dam.
The Missouri-Mississippi River system at about 3,900 miles (6,300 km) in
length, it is the fourth longest river in the world. Its average discharge of
water makes it the tenth largest river in the world. It is the only river located
in North America that made the top ten longest rivers list. Also, its name
comes from an Ojibwe word meaning Great River. About 98.5 percent of
this river is located within the United States, the rest resides in Canada.
The Yenisei is thought of as the greatest river system that flows in the Arctic
Ocean and at 3,445 miles (5,539 km), is the fifth longest river in the world. It
is in Russia and is mainly in the Siberian region. This river includes several
hydro-electric dams that fuel a significant part of Russias primary industry.
The Yellow River (also called the Huang He) is the second
longest river in the Peoples Republic of China and is the
sixth longest in the world being about 3,010 miles (4,845
km) in length. In china it is known by both positive and
negative nicknames. The positive one being the cradle of
China because it is the birthplace of northern Chinese
civilization and the negative one being Chinas sorrow because of the flooding that occurs that
causes a large amount of damage.
The Ob-Irtysh river system makes up the seventh largest river in the world.
The Irtysh is a tributary of the Ob and is actually longer than the Ob. These
rivers are located in Siberia and together are about 3,364 miles (5,410 km) in
length. They form a major basin in Asia, encompassing most of Western
Siberia and the Altay Mountains.
The Congo River (also called the Zaire River) is the second largest river in
Africa and the eight largest in the world. It is about 2,922 miles (4,700 km)

long. It has both the second largest flow and the second larges draining basin in the world, only
following the Amazon. The Congo has its name because of the Kingdom of Kongo that inhabited
the area at the mouth of the river in ancient times. It is known as the Zaire River only because
between 1971 and 1997he area was known as Zaire and the government called it the Zaire River
until the country be came the Republic of Congo.
The Amur River (also called the Heilong Jiang) is the worlds ninth longest
river and is also the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern
China. This River flows across northeast Asia to the Strait of Tartary, where it
finally drains into the Pacific Ocean. It was has been called the Black River
because it was sacred to the Manchu and the Qing Dynasty and it is also a
symbol of Russian-Chinese relations.
The Lena River is Russias greatest river and being approximately 2,800 miles
(4,400 km), it also the worlds tenth longest river. This river has seven
different tributary rivers that join with it and they are the Kirenga River, the
Olyokyma River, the Vitim River, the Amga River, the Aldan River, the Vilyuy
River and the Maya River. It has the unique distinction of the River who
appears to be the largest river in the world when looked at with a Mercator
projection.