Highest, Longest and Largest in the World: Static GK

After the superlatives of India come the superlatives of the world, and they are asked in exactly the same one-line form: the highest peak, the longest river, the largest ocean, the deepest lake. A candidate either knows them or does not. These notes gather the world records that come from geography and therefore stay fixed, keep the disputed ones clearly marked so that a student is not caught out by a changed answer, and close with the man-made records that need refreshing before every exam.

Mountains, plateaus and deserts

Mount Everest in the Himalaya, on the border of Nepal and China, is the highest mountain in the world; the joint survey published by Nepal and China in 2020 gave its height as 8,848.86 metres. It is called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet. K2, also called Godwin Austen, in the Karakoram, 8,611 metres, is the second highest, and Kangchenjunga, 8,586 metres, is the third. The Andes of South America form the longest mountain range on land, running the length of the continent, while the Himalaya holds the greatest concentration of high peaks. The Tibetan plateau, called the roof of the world, is the highest and largest plateau. Antarctica is the largest desert of the world, because a desert is defined by how little precipitation it receives rather than by heat, and the Sahara in northern Africa is the largest hot desert. The Atacama in Chile is the driest desert.

Oceans, rivers and lakes

The Pacific is the largest and deepest ocean and the Arctic the smallest; the deepest known point on earth is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, close to eleven kilometres below the surface. The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world and the Gulf of Mexico the largest gulf. The Nile in Africa is conventionally taken as the longest river, about 6,650 kilometres, though several surveys argue for the Amazon; the Amazon is beyond dispute the largest river by the volume of water it carries and by the size of its basin, and it holds the largest rainforest. The Caspian Sea, enclosed by land, is the largest lake in the world, Lake Superior the largest freshwater lake by area, and Lake Baikal in Siberia the deepest lake and the one with the greatest volume of fresh water. Angel Falls in Venezuela, 979 metres, is the highest waterfall. The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is the largest coral reef system, and the Sundarbans, shared by India and Bangladesh, the largest delta and largest mangrove forest.

Continents, countries and islands

Asia is the largest continent by area and by population and Australia the smallest; Africa is the second largest. Russia is the largest country in the world by area, spread over two continents, and Vatican City the smallest, an enclave inside Rome. Canada has the longest coastline of any country. China and Russia each border fourteen countries, the largest number for any state. Greenland is the largest island, Indonesia the largest archipelago and the Arabian peninsula the largest peninsula. Among cities, La Paz in Bolivia is the highest seat of government in the world. The boreal forest, or taiga, that runs across northern Russia, Scandinavia and Canada is the largest forest belt on earth, and the Amazon the largest tropical rainforest.

Climate extremes and human records

Mawsynram in Meghalaya in India records the highest average rainfall in the world, with Sohra, long known as Cherrapunji, close behind. The lowest air temperature ever measured on the surface of the earth was recorded at the Vostok station in Antarctica, and the highest was recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley in the United States in 1913. Among structures and works of engineering, the Great Wall of China is the longest wall, Angkor Wat in Cambodia the largest religious monument, the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok the longest railway line, about 9,289 kilometres, the Louvre in Paris the largest art museum and the Library of Congress in Washington the largest library. Mammoth Cave in the United States is the longest cave system and Son Doong in Vietnam holds the largest cave passage.

The answers that are disputed or that change

Three kinds of answers in this chapter need care. The first are disputed measurements: the length of the Nile against that of the Amazon depends on which headstream is counted, and the height of Everest was revised by the joint Nepal and China survey of 2020, so quote the figure with the survey. The second are definition-dependent: Antarctica is the largest desert only if a desert is defined by precipitation, and the Caspian is the largest lake only if an enclosed salt water body counts as a lake. A careful candidate reads the exact words of the question, which usually say hot desert, or freshwater lake, and answer accordingly. The third are man-made records, such as the tallest building, the longest bridge, the longest tunnel and the busiest airport, which shift every few years as new projects open; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai has been the tallest building since 2010, but taller towers are under construction, so check such an answer against a current source instead of an old list.