River
The world's great rivers
20 places, each with its own page: where it is, how it came to be and what makes it special.
- Nile 6 650 km The Nile flows north through eleven African countries before reaching the Mediterranean Sea.
- Amazon 6 400 km The Amazon carries more water than any other river on Earth, winding through the world's largest rainforest in South America.
- Yangtze 6 300 km The Yangtze is Asia's longest river, flowing entirely within China from icy Tibetan mountains to the busy port of Shanghai.
- Yenisei 5 539 km The Yenisei flows north through Siberia in Russia, splitting the vast region roughly in half before pouring into the icy Arctic Ocean.
- Yellow River (Huang He) 5 464 km Known as China's Sorrow, the Yellow River carries more mud and sand than almost any river on Earth, turning its water a yellow-brown colour.
- Ob 5 410 km The Ob River winds across the flat plains of western Siberia in Russia, one of the longest rivers in Asia.
- Paraná 4 880 km The Paraná River flows through the heart of South America, linking Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
- Congo 4 700 km The Congo River winds through the vast rainforests of central Africa and is the deepest river in the world.
- Mekong 4 350 km The Mekong River flows through six countries in Asia, from the icy Tibetan Plateau to the tropical Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
- Lena 4 294 km The Lena River flows entirely within Russia, making it the longest river found in just one country.
- Mackenzie 4 241 km The Mackenzie River is Canada's longest river, flowing through remote northern wilderness to the Arctic Ocean.
- Niger 4 200 km The Niger River loops in a strange boomerang shape through West Africa, flowing toward the Sahara Desert before turning back to the sea.
- Mississippi 3 766 km The Mississippi River flows through the heart of the United States, from small streams in Minnesota down to the warm Gulf of Mexico.
- Volga 3 531 km The Volga is Europe's longest river, flowing entirely within Russia from quiet hills to the salty Caspian Sea.
- Indus 3 180 km The Indus River gave its name to India and to one of the world's oldest civilisations, which grew along its banks nearly 5,000 years ago.
- Brahmaputra 2 900 km The Brahmaputra begins near Mount Kailash in Tibet and flows through China, India and Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal.
- Danube 2 850 km The Danube flows through more countries than any other river in the world, linking capital cities across central and eastern Europe.
- Amur 2 824 km The Amur River forms a long natural border between Russia and China in northeastern Asia.
- Murray 2 508 km The Murray River is Australia's longest river, flowing across the dry southeast of the continent to the Southern Ocean.
- Rhine 1 230 km The Rhine River flows from the Swiss Alps through several European countries to the North Sea, carrying more cargo ships than almost any other river on Earth.
How these rivers were chosen
These are the rivers that shaped where people settled. Some are here because they are the longest, some because a civilisation grew up along them, and some because they carry more water than any other even though they are not the longest. Every continent that has great rivers is represented, which matters more than filling the list with the twenty longest.
A river's length is less settled than it looks. Rivers begin as many small streams, and choosing a different stream as the true source moves the total by hundreds of kilometres — which is exactly why the Nile and the Amazon still argue about which is longest. Where a figure is disputed, the page for that river says so, and gives both.
Every one of them stands on the globe
These pages are not only a list: every entry here has a place on the spinning globe, at its real coordinates. From far away the planet is a plain blue ball — detail only arrives as you zoom in, and then each of these is standing exactly where it belongs.
It works the other way round too: whatever you click on the globe opens its page, and every page links back to that exact spot on the globe. You can wander from a map into a text and back again without ever using the search box.