Geography of Africa outer ranges. The main drainage of the continent is to the north and west, or towards the basin of the Atlantic Ocean. To the main African rivers belong: Nile (the longest river of Africa), Congo (river with the highest water discharge on the continent) and the Niger, which flows half of its length through the arid areas. The largest lakes are the following: Lake Victoria (Lake Ukerewe), Lake Chad, in the centre of the continent, Lake Tanganyika, lying between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. There is also the considerably large Lake Malawi stretching along the eastern
Mississippi River Lake Itasca, the Mississippi has a length of 2,320 miles (3,730 km). When measured from its longest stream source (most distant source from the sea), Brower's Spring in Montana, the source of the Missouri River, it has a length of 3,710 miles, making it the fourth longest river in the world after the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze. When measured by the largest stream source (by water volume), the Ohio River, by extension the Allegheny River, would be the source, and the Mississippi would begin in Pennsylvania. The Mississippi River runs through or along 10 states, from Minnesota to Louisiana, and