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The Longest Rivers in the World


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Did you know that the longest river in the world is the Nile? Egypt's greatest river is 4,160 miles long! In fact, Africa has two of the ten longest rivers. The Congo, which flows through central Africa, is Number 8 at 2,718 miles long.

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.

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.

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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