50 Fun Facts About River

Which two rivers are locked in a long-running dispute over the title of world's longest?

The Nile is traditionally listed at about 6,650 km, but some scientists measure the Amazon as longer if you count it to the Pará estuary.

Which river is the longest in Asia and the longest anywhere to flow entirely within one country?

Its Chinese name, Chang Jiang, simply means Long River. Its delta produces as much as a fifth of China's GDP.

By discharge volume, which river is by far the largest in the world?

It carries about a fifth of all river water reaching the oceans, more than the next seven rivers combined, and pushes fresh water more than 100 km out into the Atlantic.

How many bridges cross the world's biggest river by volume along its entire South American course?

Most of it runs through rainforest with few roads to connect, and in the wet season it can be 48 km wide.

Which Spanish explorer navigated and named South America's greatest river in 1542?

He reported being attacked by female fighters. The river rises at Mismi Peak in the Peruvian Andes and crosses Peru, Colombia and Brazil.

What is the pororoca?

Ocean tides push a wave far up the river, and surfers have ridden it for miles.

In which direction does the Nile flow?

It empties into the Mediterranean, which is why maps of ancient Egypt put 'Upper Egypt' in the south. Its basin covers eleven countries.

In which capital city do the White Nile and Blue Nile meet?

The Blue Nile rises near Lake Tana in Ethiopia and, with the Atbarah, supplies 97% of the river's sediment.

What is the name of the huge reservoir created by Egypt's Aswan High Dam?

Before the dam, the annual flood deposited nutrient-rich silt on the banks, the foundation of ancient Egyptian farming.

Which river is the deepest in the world, with measured depths of around 220 metres?

It is also the only major river to cross the equator twice, and it was known as the Zaire River for part of the 20th century.

Which unusual geographic feat does the Congo River perform?

Its great arc through central Africa takes it north over the line and back south again. Livingstone Falls block ships from reaching the sea.

How many countries does the Danube run through or border, more than any other river?

From the Black Forest to the Black Sea it also passes four capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.

In which German region does the Danube rise?

It is Europe's second-longest river after the Volga at 2,850 km, of which 2,415 km are navigable. It once marked the frontier of the Roman Empire.

Which of these capital cities does NOT sit on the Danube?

Prague is on the Vltava. Bratislava is the fourth Danube capital.

Which river is the longest in Europe?

At about 3,530 km it rises in the Valdai Hills and ends in the Caspian Sea, 28 metres below sea level. Russians call it Mother Volga.

Into which body of water does the Volga empty?

Its delta is the largest estuary in Europe and the only place in Russia where you can find pelicans, flamingos and lotuses.

What is the traditional source of the Mississippi River?

From there it runs 2,340 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Its watershed drains parts of 32 states and two Canadian provinces.

The name Mississippi comes from an Ojibwe phrase meaning what?

Misi-ziibi, rendered by the French as Misi zipi. 'Father of Waters' and 'Old Man River' are nicknames rather than translations.

Which river is the longest in the United States, edging out the Mississippi?

Together the Mississippi-Missouri system stretches about 6,275 km, the fourth-longest river system on Earth.

Which river's 1969 fire in Cleveland helped spur the Clean Water Act and the creation of the EPA?

It had burned at least a dozen times since 1868. Time magazine wrote that it 'oozes rather than flows', and Randy Newman wrote a song about it.

What did engineers do to the Chicago River in 1900?

The Sanitary and Ship Canal sent the city's sewage toward the Mississippi instead of its drinking water. Every St Patrick's Day it is dyed green with 40 pounds of vegetable dye.

How long is Montana's Roe River, which Guinness named the world's shortest river in 1989?

Fifth-graders campaigned for the title. Oregon's D River, the previous holder, fought back with a new measurement, and Guinness eventually dropped the category.

What is the Onyx, at 32 km, notable for?

It is a summer meltwater stream that flows away from the ocean into Lake Vanda, has no fish, and in some years never reaches the lake at all.

Which river carved the Grand Canyon?

Its name is Spanish for 'coloured reddish', after its silt. Because of water use it has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s, though it supplies 40 million people.

Which dam created Lake Mead on the river that carved the Grand Canyon?

Glen Canyon Dam upstream formed Lake Powell. Together they hold back a river 1,450 miles long.

Which river runs the largest hydroelectric power station in the world?

The Three Gorges Dam. The river's basin is home to nearly a third of China's population, and its baiji dolphin was declared extinct in 2006.

Which Chinese waterway is nicknamed both 'China's Pride' and 'China's Sorrow' for its floods?

Its 1887 and 1931 floods each killed at least a million people. It is the most sediment-laden river in the world, and its bed now sits metres above the surrounding land in places.

China's second-longest river gets its colour and name from silt from which upland region?

At 5,464 km it is China's second-longest river and empties into the Bohai Sea after crossing nine provinces.

Which river is the most sacred to Hindus and is worshipped as a goddess?

It rises in the Himalayas of Uttarakhand and, with the Brahmaputra, builds the world's largest delta, about 64,000 square kilometres in the Sundarbans.

Which river system forms the largest delta in the world?

The Ganges Delta covers about 64,000 square kilometres across Bangladesh and India and includes the Sundarbans mangroves.

Which river plunges over Victoria Falls, 'the smoke that thunders'?

It is Africa's fourth-longest river and its longest east-flowing one, rising in Zambia and reaching the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. The Kariba Dam powers Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Which Scottish explorer descended southern Africa's great east-flowing river and named Victoria Falls?

The river is 2,574 km long and its basin supports some 32 million people, most of them farmers.

How long is the River Thames?

It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, is tidal up to Teddington Lock, and is called the Isis where it passes through Oxford.

Where does the tidal stretch of the Thames end?

Below it the river rises and falls with the sea; above it the Thames Barrier is no help. In cold centuries the frozen river hosted frost fairs.

By what name is the Thames known as it flows through Oxford?

The name survives in the Boat Race and in college rowing. The Cherwell is the tributary that joins it in the city.

How many countries does the Mekong flow through?

China (where it is the Lancang), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Only the Amazon has more biodiversity.

When the Mekong floods, what happens to the Tonlé Sap river in Cambodia?

Floodwater pushes back up the tributary and swells the Tonlé Sap lake to many times its dry-season size, feeding one of the world's richest fisheries.

Which enormous fish, reaching about 3 metres and 300 kg, is the Mekong's most famous inhabitant?

The river also holds one of the last populations of Irrawaddy dolphins, down to around 85 animals.

Which river is the second-longest in Africa after the Nile?

Its system runs 4,700 km and its basin covers about four million square kilometres, with nearly 800 recorded fish species.

Roughly what share of the world's river water flowing into the oceans is carried by the Amazon alone?

Its drainage basin covers some seven million square kilometres, the largest on the planet.

Which river, at 2,508 km, is the longest in Australia?

Its tributaries include five of the next six longest rivers in the country, and together their catchments cover about a seventh of Australia.

Which river is the longest in France?

It rises in the Massif Central and drains more than a fifth of the country, yet its average flow is only half that of the Rhône.

Mosul, Samarra and Baghdad all stand on the banks of which river?

It is the eastern of the two great rivers of Mesopotamia, and the Mandaean community still uses it for baptisms.

Which river holds Europe's most powerful waterfall and empties into the North Sea?

It starts in the Swiss Alps and forms stretches of the Swiss, Austrian, German and French borders before crossing the Netherlands.

Which river rises in Tibet and empties into the Arabian Sea near Karachi?

In Tibet it is called the Sengge Zangbo; its Panjnad tributary gathers the five rivers that give Punjab its name.

Which Canadian river flows from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean?

Its watershed drains about 20 percent of Canada, and with the Slave, Peace and Finlay it forms the longest river system in the country.

By what name is the Rio Grande known in Mexico?

At 1,896 miles it is the fourth-longest river in the United States by main stem, and it forms the Texas-Mexico border.

Which river's basin is split roughly 65% in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia?

Heavy rainfall across the basin makes it the third-largest river in the world by discharge, behind only the Amazon and the Congo.

Which is the longest river flowing entirely within Russia?

At 4,294 km it is the eleventh-longest river on Earth, and permafrost underlies its entire catchment.

Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia, stands on which river?

The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the river there; with its tributary the Irtysh it forms the world's seventh-longest river system.