# How long is the Amazon River? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 16, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424 "2000-09-16T19:49:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/1 "2000-09-16T19:49:50Z")
I heard a few years ago that geographers had reckoned that the Amazon is longer than the Nile–about 4,200 miles. This doesn’t make sense! I have a “mileage wheel” I usually use on street maps to calculate the distance I’ll have to drive to get somewhere. But I used this on an atlas map of South America, and the length of the river–starting at its delta around Ilha do Marajó and going upstream–seems to be only _two_ thousand miles or so. Once you cross the Brazil-Peru border, moving upstream, the Amazon splits into three or four tributaries, none carrying the name “Amazon.” Have I missed something here? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Grimhacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Grimhacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grimhacker)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/2 "2000-09-16T19:53:11Z")
it’s about an inch and a half long in my atlas. ---
**Author:** ![Wooster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Wooster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wooster)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/3 "2000-09-16T19:59:13Z")
I think it’s about 4 million years long, since the last shift of the Aswan Gap. ---
**Author:** ![Wooster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Wooster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wooster)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/4 "2000-09-16T20:00:39Z")
Oops. I misread and thought you meant the Nile. The Amazon has been there much longer, since Pangaea. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/5 "2000-09-16T20:15:46Z")
[Britannica - Nile River](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/2/0,5716,57252+1+55849,00.html) > [@](#): > > The Nile River also serves as a vital waterway for the transportation of people and goods. Length 4,132 miles (6,650 km); drainage basin 1,293,000 square miles (3,349,000 square km); mean annual discharge 109,475 cubic feet per second (3,100 cubic m/sec). [Britannica - Amazon River](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/2/0,5716,6112+1+6029,00.html) > [@](#): > > Originating within 100 miles (160 km) of the Pacific Ocean at its westernmost source high in the Peruvian Andes, the Amazon flows almost 4,000 miles (6,400 km) across northern Brazil to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean on the northeastern coast of Brazil. Its length is second only to that of the Nile. One other thing to note about measuring along a map: a lot of bends and oxbows are going to be straightened out, the smaller the scale of the map. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/6 "2000-09-16T20:48:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Originating within 100 miles (160 km) of the Pacific Ocean at its westernmost source high in the Peruvian Andes, the Amazon flows almost 4,000 miles (6,400 km) across northern Brazil to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean on the northeastern coast of Brazil. Its length is second only to that of the Nile. Ah–but which one of those tributaries issuing from the Peruvian Andes is used in recoking the Amazon’s length? My Hammond Atlas has no clues… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-the-amazon-river/33424/7 "2000-09-16T21:28:41Z")
Abraham Lincoln said that it was long enough to reach the ocean.