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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 (3,980, really) from start to finish, winding its way through most of South America. China lays claim to Numbers 3 and 6: The Yangtze River is 3,917 miles long, and the Huang He is 3,395. North America's longest river, the Mississippi and Missouri combination, comes in at 3,870 miles long.
Russia has three more rivers in the Top Ten. Number 5 is the Yenisie River, which flows through Siberia and is 3,440 miles long. The Amur River runs through northeast Asia and totals 2,744 miles in length. The Lena River, at Number 10, flows north through central Russia and is 2,728 miles long. 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 7 on the list, is 3,354 miles long from its source in southern Russia to its mouth in the Ob Bay, in the very cold waters off northern Russia.
