The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or the Fountain of Four Rivers is a fountain in Piazza Navona that is a masterpeice of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the representation of four great rivers on the four continents known to Renaissance Europe: the Ganges in Asia, the Nile in Asia, the Danube in Europe and the Rio de la Plata in the Americas.

The Eternal City

Rome. Italy

The four continents as known by Renaissance geographers are represented by a river god of the four great rivers, rocks, and animals that personify the four continents.

The River Ganges in Asia is represented by a river god and the long oar adjacent to him is the representation of the Gamges River navigability.

This lion is associated with the Nile River and the continent of Africa.

This River God represents the continent of Africa and the Nile River with the head being covered to represent the unknown source of the Nile River to the Europeans in the era of the Renaissance.

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