Which river is longer - the Volga or the Yenisei? Features of two rivers

Which river is longer - the Volga or the Yenisei? This question may be of interest to many. Including the inhabitants of Russia - the country, on the territory of which these rivers flow. Let's try to answer it in this article.

Determining the length of the river is a geographical problem

Any watercourse has a source and a mouth. The distance between these two points along the channel is the length of the river. This hydrographic value, as a rule, is determined by large-scale topographic maps.

It should immediately be noted that the definition of the length of the river is a task that geographers can solve very difficultly. It would seem that this is complicated? But in practice there are many nuances that considerably complicate the process of measuring the lengths of rivers. Let's list these nuances and complications:

• It can sometimes be difficult to determine exactly where a particular river begins;
• Difficulties in measurement can also arise in the case when it is impossible to determine exactly which of the sources should be considered the source of the main river;
• The process of calculating the length of the watercourse can be complicated by seasonal factors;
• To designate the end of the river (mouth) is also very difficult, especially if it falls into the sea in the form of a vast estuary;
• The accuracy of the geographic maps used also depends on the accuracy of the measurements.

Today, geographers can use satellite imagery of the Earth's surface, so one of the above problems has become less. However, other difficulties in measuring the length of the watercourses remain relevant and unresolved.

Which river is longer - the Volga or the Yenisei? Unfortunately, geographers can not answer this question quite unambiguously.

The Volga River is the largest river system in Europe

The Volga is the largest European river and the largest on the planet among those that flow into inland water bodies (that is, they do not have direct runoff to the Ocean). Its length, according to hydrographs, is 3530 km. Although some researchers believe that the Volga is a hundred kilometers shorter.

Anyway, the area of the Volga river basin is colossal - 1.36 million square meters. Km, which far exceeds the area of any of the modern European countries. On its long journey, the river takes in over 150,000 watercourses of various sizes.

The Volga is a typical lowland river. The current velocity is low (up to 6 km / h), and the overall slope of its channel is negligible and amounts to only 0.07%.

The Volga begins on the Valdai Upland and flows, strongly winding, mainly in a southerly direction. The river flows into the Caspian Sea near Astrakhan, forming a wide delta, in which geographers number up to five hundred sleeves! At the same time, the mouth of the Volga is at an altitude of -28 meters in comparison with the sea level.

One of the most remarkable Volga landscapes is presented in the photo below. It is partially bogged down by the waters of the Nikolskaya River bell tower in the city of Kalyazin.

Yenisei: features of the river and its length

Yenisei is a mighty and severe Siberian river. Its banks are very unlike each other: the right one is tall and wooded, and the left one is bare and flat. Yenisei is an amazing river. After all, in its upper course you can ride on the back of a camel along semi-desert landscapes, but in the lower one you can watch how white polar bears catch fish in icy water.

The length of the Yenisei is a question that still haunts many geographers. After all, in the case of this river, the problem of determining its source remains unsolved. If we consider it the beginning of the fusion point of the Small and Great Yenisei, then the length of the watercourse is 3487 km. If we start the countdown from the source of the Idar River, this value will be much more significant - 5238 km.

One way or another, in terms of the area of its catchment basin the Yenisei is one of the ten largest river systems on the planet.

Which river is longer: the Volga or the Yenisei?

Both river systems are among the ten largest on the continent of Eurasia. But which river is longer - the Volga or the Yenisei? Even if you look at the detailed physical map of the continent, the answer will not be so obvious.

The length of the Volga is 3530 km, and the Yenisei - 3487 km. Thus, if we consider the merger of the Big and Small Yenisei to be the beginning of the river, then the Volga will be longer. If we consider the source of this river as the source of Idar in Mongolia, then the Yenisei will get the "palm tree".