The Longest Rivers in the World, and the Argument About First Place

Rivers are reliable quiz territory, with one catch: the top of the list is genuinely disputed. Measurements depend on where you decide a river begins, and reasonable people disagree.

The top twenty

Why the top two keep swapping

The Nile has traditionally held first place, and most quizzes still expect it. But a 2007 Brazilian expedition traced the Amazon to a different headwater high in the Peruvian Andes, which added enough length to put it ahead.

The disagreement comes down to three choices. Which tributary counts as the true source? Where does the river end — at the last narrow channel, or out through a wide estuary? And how do you measure a channel that braids and wanders across a floodplain? Change any one of those and the order changes.

What is not disputed: the Amazon carries vastly more water than any other river, roughly as much as the next seven combined.

Europe’s own order

The Volga is Europe’s longest at about 3,530 km, followed by the Danube at 2,850 km. The Danube is the more quizzed of the two because it passes through or touches ten countries, more than any other river in the world, and four capital cities: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.

Short river names for crosswords

2: Ob. 3: Po, Exe, Dee, Ure. 4: Nile, Ouse, Aire, Tyne, Amur, Lena, Oder, Elbe. 5: Rhine, Volga, Tiber, Trent, Indus, Niger, Congo, Severn (6). The Exe, Ouse and Ure are solvers’ favourites because of the vowels.