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Famous Rivers

Can you name these well-known rivers based on a description?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 21, 2020
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First submittedAugust 13, 2012
Times taken81,826
Average score65.0%
Rating4.56
4:00
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Description
River
World's longest river
Nile
Longest river in North America
Mississippi-Missouri
World's largest river by volume
Amazon
Longest river in Asia
Yangtze
Major river of London
Thames
Major river of Paris
Seine
Major river of Rome
Tiber
Flows parallel the Tigris
Euphrates
Connects the Great Lakes
to the Atlantic
St. Lawrence
Home to an ancient civilization
in modern-day Pakistan
Indus
Description
River
Longest river in Europe
Volga
Hinduism's most sacred river
Ganges
Flows through Düsseldorf and Basel
Rhine
River that carved the Grand Canyon
Colorado
Second longest in Africa
Congo
Longest in Indochina
Mekong
Forms the border of Mexico and Texas
Rio Grande
Longest in Australia
Murray
Flows through four capitals, including
Vienna and Budapest
Danube
"Colorful" river that forms the border
of South Africa and Namibia
Orange
+7
Level 20
Nov 16, 2013
Nice quiz.... A little way too easy.
+15
Level 79
Feb 7, 2020
You must be a potamologist :)
+3
Level 67
Jun 19, 2021
No I'm pretty sure it's just easy.
+5
Level 48
Dec 23, 2013
I think it was a good quiz
+4
Level 42
Sep 9, 2016
If you liked this quiz, try out mine !
+2
Level 56
Jun 5, 2023
no
+8
Level 32
Sep 3, 2014
Great quiz. I also notice that the river quizzes are extremely difficult for a Pole. Almost every river in our language has got a different name than here. Lost Seine (pl: Sekwana) and almost didn't get Danube (pl: Dunaj) because of this.
+3
Level 72
May 26, 2015
St. Lawrence - Sw. Wawrzynca :)
+3
Level 75
Sep 20, 2021
It may be comforting to know that you're not the only ones - we know the Danube as Donau, the Thames as Themse, the Vltava (not featured here) as Moldau and the St Lawrence as the Sankt-Lorenz-Strom. Did you guess where I'm from? ;-)

On a side note, when I started learning Polish, I was surprised that some cities' names were completely different, such as Monachium for Munich and most notably Akwizgran for Aachen. Then I realized that these are derived from the Latin names of these cities, which is a beautiful view into Old European history - the first time anyone i Poland heard of these places, it was probably some monk, court scribe or medieval diplomat conversing in Latin. I love that.

+3
Level 82
Mar 23, 2015
I think more than 26% probably would have gotten the Delaware, Potomac, Yellow, Ohio, Sacramento, Blue Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Jordan, Styx, or possibly some others. I would have gotten Han or St James but those aren't terribly well known. Have lived next to both before.
+4
Level 82
Mar 23, 2015
Maybe Cuyahoga, too. Though it's a bit obscure now. It's been a while since it caught fire.
+2
Level 88
Jan 21, 2020
Be fair. Its "water" has generally been able to extinguish a match in under a minute for several decades now.
+4
Level 84
Jan 22, 2020
The only Burning River in Cleveland now is the beer.
+2
Level 72
Mar 25, 2015
Yangzi for Yangtze? It is listed in Wikipedia.
+2
Level 17
Dec 5, 2015
Orange and Ebro and Yellow should be in
+2
Level ∞
Jan 21, 2020
Added the Orange River.
+3
Level 79
Jan 24, 2016
Why do you give so much time? The answers are easy, and I finished with over two minutes on the clock.
+7
Level 56
Aug 17, 2022
Why do people keep making this elitist complaint? There are some people who aren't absolute geography nerds, and this can be a challenging quiz for them. If you can finish with a lot of time left, then good for you, but that's not enough to restrict other people's ability to even play the quiz at all
+2
Level 57
Apr 2, 2016
Can never spell Yangtze. For some reason, I always spell it Yangxi
+5
Level 71
Jan 25, 2017
Good quiz, if you think you know your rivers try .....'Mal's Capital City Rivers'.
+17
Level 68
May 29, 2017
No one. Likes. Self-advertising.
+10
Level 89
Feb 7, 2020
No one. Likes. Complainers.
+10
Level 78
Feb 7, 2020
People interested in river quizzes probably appreciate this instance of self-advertising.
+4
Level 32
Jun 19, 2021
Just look up “rivers” on JetPunk of you want quizzes about rivers.
+2
Level 42
Jan 16, 2019
Nice but one thing - that I think Zaire should be accepted.
+2
Level 67
Feb 7, 2020
I'm not far from thinking the same
+2
Level 66
Jan 22, 2020
Nice selection if questions! I missed 4, shamefully the rome one, also couldnt come up with mekong. And havent heard of stlawrence and murray.
+7
Level 66
Jan 22, 2020
Btw I think this quiz could really benefit from a yellow box. People might start spamming famous rivers even before reading the questions. Or think ah a river in europe? And just randomly throw out a name they know which then fills another answer.
+1
Level 56
Aug 17, 2022
I agree, though I shamefully admit that I can never distinguish between the Rhine/Volga/Danube rivers... I know them by heart from middle school geography (as well as the Murray river) but we never got too in-depth into them
+1
Level 78
Aug 17, 2022
Yeah, I got 3 or 4 answers just trying to guess the longest river in Asia
+3
Level 57
Feb 7, 2020
Where's hilarious comedienne?
+2
Level 79
Apr 20, 2020
Don't understand
+2
Level 76
Aug 17, 2022
They're making a reference to the comedienne Joan Rivers.
+2
Level 79
Feb 7, 2020
Very nice quiz, except I wonder what makes the river Murray "famous." All others appear to be world renown, international, or have significance beyond the specific country in which they are located. I am not sure about the fame of the river "Orange" either, but at least the clue is famous.
+7
Level 88
Feb 7, 2020
Presumably being the longest river in Australia is enough of a claim to fame to account for its inclusion in the quiz.
+3
Level 79
Feb 7, 2020
Fair enough, but dubious fame at best. Why not France's or Russia's or Burkina Faso's longest river?
+7
Level 67
Feb 16, 2020
Oz is a continenet and all the other continents longest rivers are in the quiz?
+6
Level 79
Jan 4, 2021
@Islandcarver because Australia is a continent as well as a large country, whereas Burkina Faso is neither.
+3
Level 66
Nov 8, 2020
I wouldn't think the St Lawrence, Rio Grande or Volga are globally significant.
+1
Level 72
Jun 19, 2021
Never heard of the Orange Free State?
+1
Level 67
Feb 24, 2021
For the last one, I just typed out colors until I got it. :D
+2
Level 73
Jul 15, 2021
Mostly just a small request, but the Saint Laurence is in french the Saint Laurent, and so for us that live in Eastern Ontario or Quebec it can be difficult to remember the english version. I still got it, but it might be nice if that was an option. 5 stars
+2
Level 90
Dec 25, 2021
Why would French names be accepted on a quiz that's in English?
+1
Level 56
Aug 17, 2022
This happens all the time. Corse is accepted instead of Corsica, for example. And for other languages, Huang He is also accepted instead of Yellow river, München instead of Munich, etc

In short, it's not egregious to accept St Laurent

+6
Level 90
Dec 25, 2021
Joan Rivers is more famous than a lot of these.
+1
Level 60
Feb 11, 2023
18/20 not bad
+1
Level 67
May 9, 2023
same
+1
Level 67
May 9, 2023
Missed St. Lawrence and Murray
+1
Level 76
Sep 21, 2023
I'm a little disappointed not to find the famous Phoenix in here :(