How long is the Orinoco? Length and water volume
The Orinoco is about 2,740 km (1,700 miles) long, and some sources give about 2,140 km. By the water it carries it is the third largest river in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo.
Lay the Orinoco over your country
The river and a country at one scale. Pick a country, drag the river or switch the globe to the Mercator map.
Orinoco: about 2,740 km (1,700 miles), about 70% of the straight-line distance from New York to Los Angeles (about 3,940 km).
Drag the river with your finger or mouse. It moves over the globe without changing shape or length, and its north stays up. The globe keeps the true proportions; on the Mercator map you can see how a river moved north grows.
Where the Orinoco flows
The Orinoco begins in the Sierra Parima in the Guiana Highlands, in southern Venezuela. It flows in a great arc west, north and east to the Atlantic Ocean, forms the border of Venezuela with Colombia for a long stretch and builds a wide delta at its mouth. The Casiquiare channel links the Orinoco basin with the Amazon basin.
The Orinoco basin covers about 1.04 million km². At its mouth the river carries about 36,000 m³/s of water on average, more than the Yangtze, although its basin is smaller than the Yangtze basin.
Rivers of similar length, straightened
Rivers drawn at one scale. Straighten them to compare their lengths and see how they look on a Mercator map.
On a Mercator map: about 2,800 km
On a Mercator map the Orinoco looks about 2,800 km long (×1.01 its true length). Its course lies close to the equator, so the map barely stretches it.
Open the Mercator mapHow long is it really?
Encyclopædia Britannica gives about 2,740 km, while many other sources give about 2,140 km. It is one of the larger disagreements among big rivers, because the result depends on the chosen source, the mouth and the accuracy of the measurement. For that reason we treat the Orinoco's length with caution and do not set it against rivers of similar length.
The line on this page's maps is about 1,801 km long, shorter than the sources say, because a 1:10 million map smooths the bends and the mouth. That is why lengths here come from the sources, not from the drawing.
Orinoco: questions and answers
The Orinoco is about 2,740 km (1,700 miles) long according to Encyclopædia Britannica. Many other sources give about 2,140 km.
The Orinoco begins in the Sierra Parima in the Guiana Highlands, in southern Venezuela.
The Orinoco flows into the Atlantic Ocean through a wide delta in eastern Venezuela.
Venezuela. For a long stretch the river forms the border between Venezuela and Colombia, and its basin covers parts of both countries.
In part. The Casiquiare channel carries some of the Orinoco's water to the Negro River, a tributary of the Amazon. It is a rare case of a natural link between two great river basins.