Friday, August 1, 2008

Longest Rivers in the World

Well, here's another list - this time related to the natural environment. This is a list of the longest rivers in the world. However, you'll quickly note that rivers aren't only important to the natural environment. They may be viewed as the arteries and lifelines of continents. Rivers not only drain large areas of land, but they also allow for human use by allowing transportation and the movement of people, resources, and goods across continents. Rivers also grant shipping access to and from the world's oceans. As you can see, rivers are an important environmental feature for many reasons. In this listing, I list the River name, length in miles and kilometers, and the body of water for the river's outflow. So, here is the list of the world's longest and most important rivers.

The River Nile at Aswan, Egypt

1. Nile, 4135 mi, 6650 km, Mediterranean Sea
2. Amazon, 3980 mi, 6400 km, Atlantic Ocean
3. Yangtze (Chiang Jiang), 3917 mi, 6300 km, East China Sea
4. Mississippi/Missouri, 3902 mi, 6275 km, Gulf of Mexico
5. Yenisei/Angara/Selenga, 3445 mi, 5539 km, Kara Sea
6. Yellow (Huang He), 3398 mi, 5464 km, Bohai Sea
7. Ob/Irtysh, 3364 mi, 5410 km, Gulf of Ob
8. Congo/Chambeshi, 2922 mi, 4700 km, Atlantic Ocean
9. Amur/Argun, 2763 mi, 4444 km, Sea of Okhotsk
10. Lena, 2736 mi, 4400 km, Laptev Sea
11. Mekong, 2705 mi, 4350 km, South China Sea
12. Mackenzie/Peace/Finlay, 2637 mi, 4241 km, Beaufort Sea
13. Niger, 2611 mi, 4200 km, Gulf of Guinea
14. Parana (Rio de la Plata), 2486 mi, 3998 km, Atlantic Ocean
15. Volga, 2266 mi, 3645 km, Caspian Sea

Amazon River Landscape, South America

Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), People's Republic of China

For a much longer and more detailed listing of the longest rivers in the world, see this article:
List of Rivers by Length

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