Routing in nginx URI with same prefix as another URI -

currently trying use nginx proxy , finding difficulties routes having uri prefix. example :

location /api/route/to/specific/application {   proxy_pass http://proxying.to/site/a; }  location /api {   proxy_pass http://proxying.to/another/site/b; } 

when visiting http://mysite.io/api/route/to/specific/application, 404 nginx while when visit http://proxying.to/site/a directly expected page.

any idea how can make work ?

thanks