One sitting

Comparison tables

Lengths are exam-safe textbook figures, not new surveys. The Ethiopian Highlands are left out of the length ranking because they are a massif, not a chain.

Longest ranges

Range	Continent	Length	Orientation	Type
Andes	South America	7,000 km	North–south, along the Pacific margin.	Young fold
Rockies	North America	4,800 km	North–south, inland of the Pacific coast.	Young fold
Great Dividing Range	Oceania	3,500 km	North–south.	Residual escarpment
Kunlun	Asia	3,000 km	East–west.	Young fold
Urals	Europe	2,500 km	North–south.	Old fold
Atlas	Africa	2,500 km	Southwest–northeast, folded into several chains (High, Middle, Tell, Saharan, Anti-Atlas).	Young fold
Tian Shan	Asia	2,500 km	East–west.	Young fold
Appalachians	North America	2,400 km	Northeast–southwest.	Old fold
Himalayas	Asia	2,400 km	Northwest–southeast arc, broadly west–east.	Young fold
Altai	Asia	2,000 km	Northwest–southeast.	Re-uplifted fold
Scandinavian Mountains	Europe	1,700 km	Northeast–southwest.	Old fold
Zagros	Asia	1,600 km	Northwest–southeast, parallel to the Persian Gulf.	Young fold
Carpathians	Europe	1,500 km	A hook: east from the north, then south through Romania.	Young fold
Alps	Europe	1,200 km	East–west arc.	Young fold
Caucasus	Europe	1,200 km	West-northwest to east-southeast, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.	Young fold
Drakensberg	Africa	1,000 km	Southwest–northeast.	Residual escarpment
Elburz (Alborz)	Asia	900 km	East–west.	Young fold
Hindu Kush	Asia	800 km	Southwest–northeast.	Young fold
Karakoram	Asia	500 km	Northwest–southeast.	Young fold
Southern Alps (New Zealand)	Oceania	500 km	Northeast–southwest.	Young fold
Pyrenees	Europe	430 km	East–west.	Young fold

Highest peak by continent

Continent	Peak	Height	Note
Asia	Everest	8,848.86 m	Himalayas, Nepal–China
South America	Aconcagua	6,961 m	Andes, Argentina. Not a volcano.
North America	Denali	6,190 m	Alaska Range. Rockies: Elbert, 4,401 m.
Africa	Kilimanjaro	5,895 m	Tanzania. Volcanic. Kenya is second.
Europe	Elbrus	5,642 m	Caucasus. Alps: Mont Blanc, 4,809 m.
Antarctica	Vinson	4,892 m	Ellsworth Mountains. Not Erebus.
Australia (Bass)	Kosciuszko	2,228 m	Great Dividing Range
Oceania (Messner)	Puncak Jaya	4,884 m	New Guinea, Indonesia

Longest rivers in this source

Nile is the textbook longest. Amazon is first by discharge, and some surveys also make it longer. Do not fight the question’s wording: if it says longest, give the Nile and add the dispute in one clause; if it says discharge, give the Amazon.

River	Continent	Length	Mouth	Rank note
Nile	Africa	6,650 km	Mediterranean Sea.	Textbook longest river. Some modern surveys make the Amazon longer. Discharge is not in dispute: the Amazon is far larger.
Amazon	South America	6,400 km	Atlantic Ocean.	Greatest discharge — about a fifth of all river water reaching the oceans. Length rival of the Nile; do not insist it is shorter if the question only says ‘longest’.
Yangtze	Asia	6,300 km	East China Sea.	Longest river in Asia and in China. Usual textbook third in the world.
Mississippi–Missouri	North America	6,275 km	Gulf of Mexico.	The combined system is the usual ‘fourth longest’ on textbook lists. Quote the system, not the upper Mississippi, when length is asked.
Yenisei	Asia	5,540 km	Yenisei Gulf, Kara Sea, Arctic Ocean.	Greatest discharge of the Siberian three, and a textbook top-five system on many lists.
Yellow River	Asia	5,460 km	Bohai Sea.	Second-longest in China. Not the longest in Asia.
Ob	Asia	5,410 km	Gulf of Ob, Kara Sea, Arctic Ocean.	The system is a textbook top-ten river. The Irtysh alone is longer than the Ob above the confluence.
Paraná–Paraguay	South America	4,880 km	Río de la Plata estuary, Atlantic Ocean.	A top-ten textbook system when the estuary is included. Do not call it an Andean river.
Congo	Africa	4,700 km	Atlantic Ocean.	Second by discharge after the Amazon. Deepest river on Earth.
Amur	Asia	4,444 km	Tatar Strait, Sea of Okhotsk — Pacific drainage.	Longest Pacific-bound river of the Russian Far East on textbook lists.
Lena	Asia	4,400 km	Laptev Sea, Arctic Ocean.	The great delta river of the Siberian three.
Mekong	Asia	4,350 km	South China Sea.	The great international river of mainland Southeast Asia.

Ranges and the rivers they feed

Range or source area	Rivers
Andes	Amazon, Magdalena, short Pacific rivers; Pilcomayo and Bermejo toward the Paraná
Guiana Highlands	Orinoco. Andean rivers join later. They are not the source.
Brazilian highlands	Paraná trunk, Paraguay, and many Amazon tributaries from the shield
Rockies	Missouri, Colorado, Rio Grande, Arkansas, Columbia headwaters
Alps	Rhine, Rhône, Po, Inn. Not the Danube’s own source.
Black Forest	Danube
Valdai Hills	Volga
Himalayas	Indus and Sutlej cut through; Ganga rises on the south side; Brahmaputra rises north of the crest
Karakoram	Shyok, Hunza, Gilgit — Indus tributaries. Not the Ganga.
Hindu Kush	Kabul to the Indus; Helmand to the inland Hamun
Kunlun / Bayan Har	Tarim tributaries on the north; Yellow River headwaters to the east
Tian Shan	Naryn–Syr Darya, Ili. Inland.
Altai	Ob and Irtysh
Ethiopian Highlands	Blue Nile, Atbara, Awash (inland)
Drakensberg	Orange (Senqu), Tugela
Great Dividing Range	Murray, Darling, Murrumbidgee. Short rivers run the other way, to the Pacific.
Zagros	Karun to the Persian Gulf; tributaries of the Tigris

Rain-shadow pairs

Pair	Windward	Lee	Note
Andes–Atacama	Eastern slopes, toward the Amazon, in the subtropics	Atacama, on the west	Also the subtropical high and the cold Humboldt current. Do not stop at ‘rain shadow’.
Andes–Patagonia	Chilean west coast, south of about 40°S	Argentine Patagonia	The westerlies reverse the subtropical pattern. This is the flip.
Himalayas–Tibet	Southern slopes, summer monsoon	Tibetan plateau	Cold desert, not a hot trade-wind desert. Winter cold from the north is also blocked.
Atlas–Sahara edge	Northern, Mediterranean slopes	Southern slope and the Sahara margin	Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. Not the Drakensberg.
Elburz–Iranian plateau	Caspian slope, Hyrcanian forest	Tehran and the plateau	Short east–west wall. Sharpest contrast of the set.
Southern Alps–Canterbury	West coast of New Zealand’s South Island	Canterbury Plains	Westerlies. Nor’wester is the foehn. Opposite side to the Atacama.
Scandinavian Mountains	Norway	Sweden, relative rain shadow	Old fold, but the weather fact is the same: westerlies, wet west.
Rockies–Great Plains	Western slopes	High Plains, with chinook descents	A weaker wall than the Himalaya. Cold air still moves south on the plains.

Alpine–Himalayan belt and Circum-Pacific belt

Point	Alpine–Himalayan	Circum-Pacific
Plate setting	Mostly continent–continent collision	Mostly oceanic subduction
Trend	Broadly east–west, Atlas to the Himalaya	Ring around the Pacific, including the north–south Andes
Earthquakes	Widespread on the active segments	Widespread, including deep Wadati–Benioff zones
Volcanoes	Scattered: Elbrus, Damavand, Mediterranean arcs	Near-continuous arcs. Textbook ring of fire.
Type examples	Alps, Himalayas, Atlas, Zagros	Andes, then Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand
Do not misfile	Urals are not in this belt	Rockies are inland of the Cascades arc

Young fold and old fold

Point	Young fold	Old fold
Age	Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic, Alpine orogeny	Mostly Paleozoic
Examples	Andes, Rockies, Alps, Atlas, Himalayas, Zagros, Caucasus	Urals, Appalachians, Scandinavian Mountains
Form	High, sharp, still being raised where convergence continues	Low, rounded, deeply eroded
Setting now	On or near a convergent margin	Intraplate. The Urals are a fossil suture.
Hazards	Earthquakes; volcanoes only if oceanic crust subducts	Neither, at fold-belt intensity
Not this pair	—	Drakensberg and Great Dividing Range are escarpments. Ethiopian Highlands are volcanic.

Inland drainage

Basin	Rivers	Where the water ends
Caspian	Volga, Ural	Caspian Sea, a lake
Aral	Amu Darya, Syr Darya	Aral Sea
Balkhash	Ili, from the Tian Shan	Lake Balkhash
Tarim	Tarim and Kunlun–Tian Shan streams	Taklamakan sinks
Sistan	Helmand	Hamun lakes
Afar / Ethiopia	Awash	Inland lakes, not the Nile
Okavango	Okavango	Inland delta in Botswana
Chad	Chari–Logone	Lake Chad

Equator

River	What is true
Congo	The channel crosses the equator twice. Deepest river. Second in discharge.
Amazon	The basin straddles the equator. The main stem does not cross it twice. Greatest discharge.
Nile	The White Nile leaves the equatorial lakes and flows north. It does not cross twice.

Direction traps outside India

River	Fact
Orange	East highland, west to the Atlantic. Not the Indian Ocean.
Murray–Darling	East highland, west then south. Not the Pacific.
Zambezi	East to the Indian Ocean. The pair that students swap with the Orange.
Amazon	West-coast mountains, so the great river flows east.
Niger	Starts near the Atlantic, flows away, bends, then comes back south.
Ob, Yenisei, Lena	North to the Arctic. Lena is the delta; Ob and Yenisei end in gulfs.
Amur	East to the Pacific. The exception in the Siberian set.
Volga	South, but to a lake, not to the Black Sea.
Danube	East to the Black Sea, which does open to the world ocean.
Rhine / Rhône	North Sea versus Mediterranean, from almost the same Alpine source area.
Colorado (USA)	Southwest to the Gulf of California, often not arriving.
St Lawrence	Northeast to the Atlantic. Not the Gulf of Mexico.