Rivers of Asia

Last reviewed on 2026-10-01.

Asian civilisation has been organised around rivers for as long as there has been writing. The earliest cities of Mesopotamia sat between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Indus Valley civilisation centred on the Indus. The capitals of imperial China hugged the Yellow and Yangtze. Today, more than half of the world’s population still lives in the basin of one of the great Asian rivers. This page walks through them roughly from east to west, with notes on their courses, the countries they cross, and the cities that depend on them.

Longest rivers in Asia

The table ranks the longest rivers of Asia by the length of the main river. Several of them flow through the Asian part of Russia (Siberia and the Russian Far East); Russia is not one of the 49 countries covered on this site, so it is not linked, but its rivers are included because they are among the longest on the continent.

River lengths are approximate and vary between sources, because they depend on which headwater is treated as the source, how meanders are measured, and the scale of the map used. Measured as whole river systems, the Ob–Irtysh is about 5,400 km, the Yenisei–Angara–Selenga about 5,500 km, and the Amur with its headwater the Argun about 4,400 km. Lengths of the Mekong and Salween in particular differ by several hundred kilometres between sources.

Rivers by region

• East Asia. The Yangtze and the Yellow River dominate China, with the Pearl River system in the south and the Amur on the Russian border in the north-east. The Yalu and the Tumen separate China from North Korea; the Han flows through Seoul in South Korea; the Shinano is the longest river in Japan; and the Selenge in Mongolia drains to Lake Baikal. See the East Asia map.
• Southeast Asia. The Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya and Red River run north to south across the mainland, each ending in a heavily farmed delta. On the islands, rivers are shorter but carry heavy rainfall: the Kapuas on Borneo is the longest river in Indonesia, and the Rajang is the longest in Malaysia. See the Southeast Asia map.
• South Asia. The Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra all rise in or near the Himalaya and support the densely populated plains of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Peninsular India has its own large rivers, such as the Godavari, Krishna and Narmada, and Nepal is crossed by Himalayan rivers including the Karnali, Gandaki and Koshi, all tributaries of the Ganges. In Afghanistan, the Helmand drains the south-west of the country. See the South Asia map.
• Central Asia. The Amu Darya and Syr Darya carry meltwater from the Pamirs and Tian Shan across the deserts towards the Aral Sea. The Ili flows from China into Lake Balkhash, and the Irtysh crosses north-eastern Kazakhstan on its way to the Ob. See the Central Asia map.
• West Asia. The Tigris and Euphrates are by far the largest rivers of the region. In the Caucasus, the Kura flows through Georgia (where it is called the Mtkvari) and Azerbaijan to the Caspian Sea, joined by the Aras. The Karun is the largest river of Iran by flow, and the Jordan and Litani are small but politically important rivers of the Levant. The Arabian Peninsula has no permanent rivers at all. See the West Asia map.

Which Asian country has the most rivers?

There is no single correct answer, because countries count rivers in very different ways. What counts depends on how small a stream can be and still be called a river, and on whether every named tributary and distributary channel is counted separately.

• Bangladesh is the country most often described as a “land of rivers”. Almost the whole country is the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, and a figure of around 700 rivers and tributaries is commonly quoted; a 2023 draft list by the country’s National River Conservation Commission counted more than 1,000. For its size, Bangladesh has one of the densest river networks in the world.
• China has more large rivers than any other country covered on this site. Its first national water census, published in 2013, counted about 45,000 rivers with catchments of 50 km² or more.
• Russia, whose Asian part includes Siberia, has many of the longest and highest-discharge rivers on the continent, including the Ob, Yenisei and Lena.

At the other extreme, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the Maldives have no permanent rivers at all.

How many rivers are there in Asia?

No reliable total exists for the continent. Counting rivers requires drawing a line between a river and a stream, and every national survey draws it in a different place, at a different map scale. Seasonal rivers, braided channels and delta distributaries make the count even less certain. What can be said is that Asia has tens of thousands of rivers: China alone records around 45,000 with a catchment of 50 km² or more. The more useful question is usually which rivers matter most, which is what the table above and the sections below set out to answer.

Yangtze (Chang Jiang)

The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world, running about 6,300 kilometres from the Tibetan Plateau through central China to the East China Sea at Shanghai. The river irrigates one of the most agriculturally productive zones in the world, supports inland shipping all the way to Chongqing, and powers the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric station by installed capacity. Major cities along its course include Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai.

Yellow River (Huang He)

The Yellow River is shorter than the Yangtze but has been just as important historically. It runs about 5,500 kilometres across northern China, beginning in the Bayan Har mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and ending at the Bohai Sea. Its name comes from the colour of its silt: the river carries an exceptional sediment load picked up from the Loess Plateau, which makes it fertile but also unstable. Historically it has shifted course many times in catastrophic floods, earning the nickname “China’s sorrow”.

Mekong

The Mekong rises on the Tibetan Plateau, runs for around 4,300 kilometres, and crosses or borders six countries before entering the South China Sea: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The Lao capital, Vientiane, sits on it; so does Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where the river splits into the Bassac and the Tonle Sap connects to the great freshwater lake. The Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam is one of the most productive rice-growing regions in the world.

The Mekong’s flow is unusually variable. The Tonle Sap river in Cambodia famously reverses direction with the seasons: in the rainy season it flows backwards from the Mekong into the lake, and in the dry season it drains the other way. Dams in the upper basin and along its tributaries have reshaped the seasonal flow over the past two decades.

Ganges

The Ganges (Ganga) is the most culturally central river in India. It rises in the Himalayas at Gangotri, runs about 2,500 kilometres south-east across the Indo-Gangetic Plain, joins the Yamuna at Allahabad and the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh, and discharges into the Bay of Bengal through the world’s largest delta. The cities of Varanasi, Patna, and Kolkata all sit on it. The Ganges basin supports one of the densest agricultural populations in the world.

Brahmaputra

The Brahmaputra rises on the Tibetan Plateau as the Yarlung Tsangpo, flows east across China for about 1,600 kilometres, then turns sharply south to enter India as the Brahmaputra and finally Bangladesh, where it joins the Ganges to form the combined delta. The river is unusual in that its upper reach in Tibet flows in the opposite direction from its lower reach in India: the Yarlung Tsangpo runs east across southern Tibet before turning sharply south through the Himalaya.

Indus

The Indus rises in the Tibetan Plateau, flows west through Ladakh and between the Karakoram and the Himalaya into Pakistan, and discharges into the Arabian Sea south of Karachi after a course of about 3,200 kilometres. Its basin is the historical home of the Indus Valley civilisation and remains the agricultural backbone of Pakistan. The river is shared and managed under the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan, which allocates the western tributaries (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan and the eastern tributaries (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India.

Tigris and Euphrates

The Tigris and Euphrates rise close to one another in the mountains of eastern Turkey, run roughly parallel through Syria and Iraq, and join near the head of the Persian Gulf as the Shatt al-Arab, which forms part of the boundary with Iran before reaching the sea. The land between them is the historical Mesopotamia. Today the rivers carry the water for Iraq’s farming heartland and pass directly through Baghdad, on the Tigris, and Mosul, on the same river upstream.

Amur (Heilong Jiang)

The Amur, called the Heilong Jiang in Chinese, forms much of the border between China and Russia in the far north-east of Asia. It runs about 4,500 kilometres before discharging into the Sea of Okhotsk. The Amur basin is sparsely populated by Asian standards but supports the cities of Khabarovsk on the Russian side and Heihe on the Chinese side, and is one of the few major rivers in Asia where most of the basin remains undammed.

Amu Darya and Syr Darya

The two great rivers of Central Asia rise in the Pamirs and Tian Shan and run roughly westward toward the basin of the Aral Sea. The Amu Darya, the larger of the two, flows through Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The Syr Darya rises in Kyrgyzstan and crosses Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Heavy diversion of both rivers for cotton irrigation since the mid-twentieth century is the main cause of the shrinking of the Aral Sea, which has lost most of its surface area in living memory.

Irrawaddy and Salween

The Irrawaddy is the central river of Myanmar, running about 2,200 kilometres from the eastern Himalayas to the Andaman Sea through Naypyidaw and Yangon. The Salween, longer and less navigable, rises in Tibet, crosses China as the Nu Jiang, and forms part of the border between Myanmar and Thailand before reaching the same sea.

Jordan and Litani

By the standards of the rivers above, the rivers of the Levant are tiny — but they are politically and historically charged out of proportion to their size. The Jordan rises near Mount Hermon, runs along the borders of Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, passes through the Sea of Galilee, and ends in the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on land in the world.

Common patterns

• Most begin in the same place. The Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, Salween, Brahmaputra, Indus, and Ganges all rise in the Tibetan Plateau or its surrounding mountains. That single high zone feeds the agricultural systems of half the continent.
• Many cross multiple countries. The Mekong (six), the Tigris and Euphrates (three each), the Amu Darya (four), and the Brahmaputra (three) are all transboundary rivers, which makes water management an active political issue rather than a purely technical one.
• Capital cities cluster on rivers. Baghdad, Damascus, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Tashkent, Kathmandu (on the smaller Bagmati), Delhi (on the Yamuna), and Seoul (on the Han) all owe their location to a river. The same is true of most of the other cities mentioned on this page.
• Deltas are the engine of food production. The Mekong, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Yangtze, and Yellow deltas together feed an outsize share of Asia’s population. They are also among the regions most exposed to sea-level rise.

For the parallel breakdown of the highlands these rivers come from, see mountain ranges of Asia. To browse the countries each river crosses, use the regional pages: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia.

Frequently asked questions

What is the longest river in Asia?

The Yangtze (Chang Jiang) is the longest river in Asia at about 6,300 km. It flows entirely within China, from the Tibetan Plateau to the East China Sea at Shanghai, and is the third-longest river in the world after the Nile and the Amazon.

Which Asian country has the most rivers?

There is no official ranking, because countries count rivers in different ways. Bangladesh is often called the land of rivers: around 700 rivers and tributaries are commonly quoted, and a 2023 draft list by its National River Conservation Commission counted more than 1,000. China and Russia have the largest number of big rivers; China’s first national water census in 2013 counted about 45,000 rivers with catchments of 50 km² or more.

How many rivers are there in Asia?

Nobody has an exact total. The answer depends on where a stream becomes a river, which size threshold is used, and how named tributaries and channels are counted. Asia certainly has tens of thousands of rivers: China alone records around 45,000 with catchments of at least 50 km².

Which major river flows through the most Asian countries?

The Mekong crosses or borders six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Amu Darya and Syr Darya in Central Asia and the Tigris and Euphrates in West Asia are other important rivers shared by several countries.

What are four major rivers of Asia?

Four of the best-known rivers of Asia are the Yangtze in China, the Ganges in India and Bangladesh, the Mekong in mainland Southeast Asia, and the Indus in Pakistan. The Tigris and Euphrates, the Yellow River and the Brahmaputra are equally important historically.

What are the main rivers of Central Asia?

The two main rivers of Central Asia are the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, which both drain towards the Aral Sea. Other important rivers include the Ili, which flows from China into Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, the Irtysh in north-eastern Kazakhstan, and the Zeravshan, which waters Samarkand and Bukhara.

Which great Asian rivers flow east?

The Yangtze, the Yellow River and the Amur all flow broadly eastward to the seas of the Pacific. In Siberia most great rivers, such as the Ob, Yenisei and Lena, flow north to the Arctic Ocean, while the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong run south or south-east to the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Which Asian countries have no permanent rivers?

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain have no permanent rivers, only wadis that flow after rain. The Maldives, a nation of low coral islands, has none either. Saudi Arabia is often described as the largest country in the world without a permanent river.

Related pages

• Mountain ranges of Asia — the Himalaya, Tian Shan and other ranges where these rivers begin.
• Capitals of Asia — many Asian capitals stand on the rivers described here.
• Languages of Asia and religions of Asia — the river basins above are also some of the continent’s great cultural regions.
• Asia map quiz — test how well you can place the countries these rivers cross.