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The Longest Rivers in the World
What's the second longest river? Why, the Amazon, of course! It is about 4,000 miles from start to finish, winding its way through most of South America. China lays claim to Numbers 3 and 4: The Yangtze River is 3,964 miles long, and the Huang He is 3,395.
Russia has two more rivers in the Top Ten. Number 6 is the Amur River, which flows through Siberia and is 2,744 miles long. The Lena River, at Number 7, flows north through central Russia and is 2,734 miles long. North America's longest river is also Number 9: the Mackenzie, in Canada, at 2,635 miles. Rounding out the Top Ten is the Mekong River, in Southeast Asia, at about 2,600 miles long. You can see a big difference from Number 1 to Number 10. The Nile is 2,000 miles longer than the Mekong. Graphics courtesy of ArtToday |
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How
do we measure these rivers? Geographers calculate the
distance from the source of the river to its
mouth. For instance, the Ob-Irtysh River, which is
Number 5 on the list, is 3,362 miles long from its source in
southern Russia to its mouth in the Ob Bay, in the very cold
waters off northern Russia.
