Quiz Monkey
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Quiz Monkey |
| Geography |
| Rivers: Longest |
| The World |
| Continents |
| The British Isles |
| Overseas |
See also Rivers.
When listing the world's longest rivers, most sources (including Wikipedia) consider complete river systems – in other words, the longest distance to the sea from any source.
| River | Countries | Miles | ||
| 1 |  | Nile |
Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt | 4,135 |
| 2 |
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Amazon |
Peru, Colombia, Brazil | 3,980 |
| 3 |
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Yangtze (Chang Jiang) |
China | 3,917 |
| 4 |
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Mississippi / Missouri |
USA | 3,902 |
| 5 |
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Yenisei / Angara / Selenge |
Russia | 3,445 |
| 6 |
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Yellow (Huang He) |
China | 3,398 |
| 7 |
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Ob/Irtysh |
Russia | 3,364 |
Some sources choose not to recognise this definition, and consider each named river separately. In other words, when it comes to fourth place they consider the Mississippi and Missouri as two separate rivers (and the same for the Yenisei, Angara and Selenge, and so on). On this principle, the Yellow River is the fourth longest and it's followed by the Congo, Lena, Amur, Irtysh and Mekong.
One such source is i before e (except after c) (see my Quiz Books page), which of course gives us a mnemonic: NAYY CLAIM. I think this is more memorable if you misread it as NAVY CLAIM - but then of course you have to remember that the V is really a Y!
Notes:
| • | The Amazon doesn't flow through Colombia, but it forms part of the border between Peru and Colombia (immediately before entering Brazil) |
| • | The Yangtze and the Yellow River both rise in Tibet |
| • | The Yenisei is one of the three major Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean. (The others are the Ob – see below – and the Lena). The Selenge is the main supply to Lake Baikal; the Angara drains Lake Baikal and flows into the Yenisei approximately one third of the distance along the length of the latter. The Selenge is 616 miles long and the Angara is 1,105 miles long – making the length of the Yenisei below the confluence about 1,725 miles (almost exactly equal to the combined length of the Selenge and the Angara) |
| • | The Ob, as well as being the world's seventh longest river, has the world's longest estuary and one of the shortest names! The Irtysh is its longest tributary |
| Africa |
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Nile | |
| Asia (China) |
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Yangtze | |
| Australia |
 |
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Murray |
| Europe (Russia) |
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Volga |
| North America (USA) |
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Missouri |
| South America (Peru, Brazil; tributaries rise in Bolivia and Colombia) |
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Amazon | |
| British Isles (Republic of Ireland) |
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Shannon |
| Great Britain |
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Severn |
| England (entirely) |
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Thames |
| Scotland (entirely) |
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Tay |
| Wales (entirely) |
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Towy |
| Northern Ireland (80 miles) |
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Bann |
| The second longest river that's entirely in England |
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Trent |
You may notice that the names of the longest rivers in both of the main islands in the British Isles start with an S. You may also notice that in Great Britain, the longest rivers that are entirely within each of the three countries all start with a T – and so does England's second longest.
The river Towy rises in mid–Wales, and forms the border between Powys and Ceredigion in its upper reaches. It flows through the Carmarthenshire towns of Llandovery, Llandeilo and Carmarthen itself, before emptying into Carmarthen Bay along with the Taf and the Gwendraeth.
| Canada |
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MacKenzie |
| France |
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Loire | |
| The Iberian peninsula – 645 miles (1038 km); 716 km in Spain, 47 km along the border, 275 km in Portugal |
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Tagus | |
| Italy |
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Po | |
| Myanmar (Burma) |
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Irrawaddy | |
| New Zealand |
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Waikato | |
| South Africa |
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Orange River | |
| Spain (entirely – and the second longest in the Iberian peninsula) |
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Ebro | |
| Switzerland (entirely – a tributary of the Rhine) |
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Aare | |
| The Glomma, or Glåma (621 kilometres / 386 miles) is the longest river in |
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Norway |
© Haydn Thompson 2017–24