Major Rivers of the World and Famous Cities on River Banks

Rivers are extremely useful for human, they provided early men with water to drink and fish to eat.

When people learned to build and use boats, rivers supplied a cheap and easy way to travel.

Floodplains provided fertile soil for crops, and the system called irrigation allowed people to use rivers to water their fields.

Today, many places use rivers to produce electric power using the fast flow of rivers to generate great amounts of electricity.

Major Rivers of the World

Nile River

The Nile river is the longest (6,650 m) river in the world.

Its drainage basin covers eleven countries - Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Republic of the Sudan, and Egypt.


In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan.

The Nile has two major tributaries - the White Nile and the Blue Nile.

The White Nile is longer and rises in the "Great Lakes region" of central Africa, while Blue Nile begins at "Lake Tana" in "Ethiopia".

The two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Amazon River

The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water and drainage area in the world, second longest river in the world and longest in South America.


The portion of the river's drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other river's basin.

Yangtze

The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country.


It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the country's population.

Mississippi River (US)

The Mississippi River is the second-longest river of North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system.

From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 3,770 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico.


The main stem is entirely within the United States; the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Yellow River

The Yellow River (Huang He) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River.

Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China, it flows through nine provinces, and empties into the Bohai Sea in Shandong province.

There are frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed, sometimes above the level of its surrounding farm fields.

Congo River

The Congo River is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge volume, following only the Amazon.

It is also the world's deepest recorded river, with measured depths in excess of 220 m.


It, also called Zaire River is the only major river to cross the equator twice.

Lualaba is the name of the Congo River upstream of Boyoma Falls, extending for 1,800 km.

Mekong River

The Mekong River, is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

It originates from the Tibetan Plateau and runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.


The Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam is a vast maze of rivers, swamps and islands, home to floating markets, Khmer pagodas and villages surrounded by rice paddies.

Niger River

The Niger River originates from the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea (West Africa) near the Sierra Leone border.


The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River.

Its main tributary is the Benue River.

Murray River

The Murray River is Australia's longest river at 2,508 km extent.

Its tributaries include five of the next six longest rivers of Australia (the Murrumbidgee, Darling, Lachlan, Warrego and Paroo Rivers).


Together with that of the Murray, the catchments of these rivers form the Murray–Darling basin, which covers about one-seventh the area of Australia.

It is widely considered Australia's most important irrigated region.

Darling River

The Darling River is the third longest river in Australia, it originates from its source in northern New South Wales.

The Darling is in poor health, suffering from over-allocation of its waters to irrigation, pollution from pesticide runoff, and prolonged drought.

The river has a high salt content and declining water quality.

Volga River

The Volga is the longest river in Europe.

It is situated in Russia, and flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea.

It is also Europe's largest river in terms of discharge and drainage basin.

Four of the ten largest cities of Russia, including the nation's capital, Moscow, are located in the Volga's drainage basin.

The Volga River originates from the Valdai Hills as a small stream and only becomes a true river after it being joined by several of its tributaries.

Danube River

The Danube is Europe's second-longest river after the Volga, flowing through much of central and southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest (Germany) into the Black Sea.

Danube is the river running through the largest number of countries in the world.


It originates in Germany and flows southeast passing through or bordering Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before draining into the Black Sea.

The largest cities on the river are Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Bratislava, all of which are the capitals of their respective countries.

Amu Darya

The Amu Darya historically known by its Latin name Oxus is a major river in Afghanistan.

Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Kush, the Amu Darya is formed by the confluence of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers.


In its upper course, the river forms part of Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

In ancient history, the river was regarded as the boundary of Greater Iran with "Turan", which roughly corresponded to present-day Central Asia.

Amu Darya and Syr Darya flows into "Aral Sea", Kazakhstan.

Colorado River

The Colorado River in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico rises in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

The river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border.

After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.

Dnieper River

The Dnieper is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea.

It is the longest river of Ukraine and Belarus and the fourth-longest river in Europe, after Volga, Danube and Ural.

Euphrates River

The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia.

Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia.

Euphrates River originates in the Armenian Highlands of eastern Turkey, it flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf.

Tigris River

The Tigris rises in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey, it is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates.

The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the Persian Gulf.

Rhine River

The Rhine is one of the major European rivers, and has its sources in Switzerland and flows in a mostly northerly direction through Germany and the Netherlands, emptying into the North Sea.


Among the largest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne, Düsseldorf, Rotterdam, Strasbourg and Basel.

The Rhine Rift Valley forms a downfaulted trough through which the river Rhine flows.

River Thames

The River Thames, also known as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London.

It is the second-longest river in the United Kingdom, after the "River Severn".

Saint Lawrence River

The Saint Lawrence River is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America.

It is part of the international boundary between Ontario, Canada, and the U.S. state of New York.

Orange River

The Orange River is a river in Southern Africa.

The river forms part of the international borders between South Africa and Lesotho and between South Africa and Namibia, as well as several provincial borders within South Africa.

Except for Upington, it does not pass through any major cities.

List of Famous Cities on River Banks in the World

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