The great saphenous veins of 18 lower limbs (7 right and 11 left) were studied. The general anatomy of these veins shows that there are no differences between the left and right veins. However, the age-long teaching that the distance between the vein and the medial edge of the patella corresponds to the width of the hand was not confirmed by this study. The mean distance was matched with the mean width of the hands of 91 medical students (55 male and 36 female), with noticeable differences. In addition to this finding, it was also found that the number of valves in the upper part of the lower limb is more compared to that of the lower part using the knee joint as the reference point. This is also in contrast to the usual teaching. The constant presence of a valve at the saphenofemoral junction was also not corroborated by this study. Although preliminary, this study is an indication that the data usually reported in anatomy textbooks are likely to have been collected from studies with cadavers of Caucasian extraction. It is worth mentioning that further research is needed to generate data that will best describe the anatomy of Negroes’ great saphenous veins.