Which river has the world's deepest gorge?

The Yarlung Tsangpo River has the world’s deepest gorge, the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet. The river curves around Mount Namcha Barwa as it leaves the Tibetan Plateau, carving a canyon whose deepest point reaches about 6,009 metres.

The river begins near the Angsi Glacier in western Tibet and is known by different names along its journey. In Tibet it is the Yarlung Tsangpo; after entering Arunachal Pradesh it is called the Siang, and farther downstream in Assam it becomes the Brahmaputra.

The gorge is also extraordinarily long—about 504.6 kilometres—and contains dramatic changes in climate and vegetation, from high-altitude terrain to subtropical forest. Its extreme rapids and remoteness have made it a legendary destination for explorers and kayakers. A 1998 National Geographic-sponsored expedition ended after the death of kayaker Doug Gordon, while an international team completed the first descent of the upper gorge section in 2002.

A common mix-up is the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, which is famous but substantially less deep. The Yarlung Tsangpo canyon is also sometimes called the Tsangpo Gorge or Brahmaputra Canyon.