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Pai River

The 883rd longest river in the world

km

The Pai River (Thai pronunciation: [mɛ̂ːnáːm paːj], RTGS: Maenam Pai) is a river that originates in the mountains of the Daen Lao Range, in Pai district, Mae Hong Son province, Thailand. It flows first in a north–south direction and then east–west, down to Mueang Mae Hong Son district and across the Thai/Myanmar border. The river flows into the Salween River in Kayah State, Myanmar. It is 180 kilometres (110 mi) long. In the Lanna language, "Pai" means "male elephant", comparable to the word "plai" in the central Thai language. There is a story that in 1477, King Tilokaraj, ruler of the Lanna Kingdom, ordered his cousin Prince Si Chaiya to attack Ban Don. Meanwhile, one of his white elephants fled, and it was later found swimming in this river. Pai River is popular for whitewater rafting. Rapids on the river range from class I to class IV on the International Scale of River Difficulty.

Flows through: Thailand.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.

Other major rivers

  1. Amazon6,992 km
  2. Nile6,650 km
  3. Yangtze River6,300 km
  4. Bian River5,806 km
  5. Yellow River5,464 km
  6. Paraná River4,880 km
  7. River Congo4,700 km
  8. Mekong River4,350 km