Where is the longest river in the world, the Amazon? Description and photo. Where does the Amazon go? River Delta and other features The widest part of the Amazon

The Amazon is one of the greatest river systems of the planet, the mouth and source of which are located on different ends of the continent of South America.

Amazon geography

If you look at the map of South America, you can see that the river stretches almost from the west of the continent to its eastern coast. The mouth of the river is located in the Andean mountain system in the territory of the state of Peru. This section of the mountain range is considered to be considered separately under the name Central Andes.

The territory where the source is located is considered one of the wettest places on the planet with a large annual percentage of precipitation (on average, about 7000 mm per year). Here, two rivers begin at once, Maranyon and Ukayale, which merge directly into the Amazon stream. Some researchers, especially among Brazilians, are inclined not to distinguish the Ucayale River, but to consider it a continuation of the Amazon itself. If you agree with this opinion, then the Amazon in its length will exceed even the African Nile.

Only the initial part of the Amazon flows in the mountains. More than 5000 km of its length extends to the lowlands, named after the Amazon River. This makes the river wide, with a smooth drain and allows large ocean vessels to go into the interior of the mainland for several thousand kilometers.

The mouth of the river is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and has a huge width. It forms the Amazon Delta, in the center of which a huge island has formed from the silt brought by the river, which is considered the largest among the river islands.

Amazon's Importance in South America

The main part of the Amazon lowland and the entire course of the river itself falls into the territory of only one country - Brazil. As the tropical rainforests stretch along the Amazon through which it is almost impossible to create a normal road network, the river and its tributaries are the main method of moving people and moving goods from the ocean to the interior of the continent.

Also, the river and its pool is home to a huge number of rare animals, such as:

• Amazonian dolphins.
• Sloths.
• Jaguar.
• Capybara.
• Giant anaconda.

The real discoverer of the Amazon was Francisco de Orellana, an officer from the conquistadors detachment Gonzalo Pizarro, who, on his second attempt in December 1541 to conquer new lands in the name of the King of Spain, traveled 600 km by ship down the Napo River to its confluence with a large river in the area of \u200b\u200bthe modern city, and then proceeded along this river, now known as the Amazon, 1200 km and reached on June 3, 1542 the place of its confluence with the Rio Negru (near modern Manaus). It was here that the conquistadors happened to encounter a tribe of warlike Indians, whom Orellana, tired of a long journey, could take for women because of her long hair and bright coloring, although it is possible that women were among the attackers too. Orellana later spoke of the incident to Charles V, and he, mindful of the ancient Greek warriors, dubbed the Amazon River. But then for the expedition members it was the Great River, the Mar Dulce, and also the Cinnamon River, since Orellana noticed trees related to the Cinnamon on its banks. The expedition continued on its way to the mouth, overcame a tidal wave and entered the ocean. Thus, the Amazon in its mainstream turned out to be navigable, and the Aurelian expedition was one of the most successful and incredible in the history of geographical discoveries.
The second descent through the Amazon was carried out by Lope de Aguirre, another frantic Spanish conquistador. But the first ascent from the mouth of the Amazon to Napo, then up to Quito, and after that it descended the same way back in 1637-1647. Portuguese Pedro Teixeira, who attracted almost two thousand natives and blacks to the expedition to transport food, ammunition and barter goods by canoe. Since then, trade and missionary settlements began to form on the banks of the Amazon tributaries. By the middle of the XIX century. the population of the Amazon basin reached 300,000, two thirds of which were Europeans and slaves.
In the 1850s, with the light hand of the Emperor of Brazil Pedro II, navigation on the Amazon began, the first steamboats began to make regular flights between Manaus and Tabatinga and between Pará (now Belém at the mouth of the river) and Manaus. Shipping companies multiplied, small ships began to plow many tributaries of the Amazon. In 1867, the government of Brazil, under pressure from other maritime powers and the states of the upper Amazon, opened the river to all flags, but with certain restrictions. At the turn of the 20th century. The Amazon basin has become a major supplier of rubber, cocoa beans, Brazil nuts and many other exotic goods for export. Until recently, the river was considered the longest river in the world, which continues to appear in most textbooks. However, the Amazon has little glory for the most full-flowing and powerful river, according to recent research, it has become longer than the Nile, though not all scientists agree with this. The question is which of the two rivers Maranion or Ucayali is considered the main source of the Amazon. If Maranion, then the Amazon will be no more than 6500 km long, and if you count from Apacheta - the source of Ukayali, then the length of the great river grows to more than 7000 km.
From the confluence of Maranion and Ucayali, southwest of the Peruvian city of Iquitos, the true Amazon begins, which in Brazil, however, until the time of Manaus bears the name Solimines. The yellow-sandy waters of the Solimines near Manaus merge with the black-transparent waters of the Rio Negro and flow side by side at a distance of 6 km without mixing - a two-color stream.

In some places, the Amazonian bed is divided into two main streams with internal and lateral arms and forms a complex interwoven system of natural canals, cutting flat land into numerous islands, nowhere rising more than 5 m above water level. The channel slope in the flat Amazon valley is only 1 cm per 1 km, and it turns out that the river only moves thanks to tributaries that “push” the water. For the same reason, in the rainy season, it can spill more than 100 km wide. The Amazon emits about 220 thousand cubic meters of water per second into the Atlantic (during the rainy season, this figure rises to 300 thousand), desalinating the ocean within a radius of 500 km.
The river is navigable almost throughout its entire length. Ocean ships reach Manaus from the Atlantic; Iquitos and above all the rest.
The size of the Amazon Delta is also controversial due to the geographical identity of the area. If the river Para is considered the sleeve of the mouth of the Amazon, it grows up to 330 km and includes the island of Marajo, the largest island in the world (the size of Denmark), surrounded by fresh waters. If we consider Par as a continuation of the Tokantins River, then the width of the mouth of the Amazon to the island of Marajo will be about 180 km, which is also a lot.
The famous Amazon jungle occupies almost the entire area of \u200b\u200bits basin. This is the largest array of tropical forests in the world, which is rightly called the "green lungs" of the planet, because the trees of the Amazonian jungle produce about a third of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. Alas, between the Manaus and the mouth of the Amazon, the jungle has lost its pristine appearance, as people have already done enough for their devastation. And the onset of civilization, violating the ecological balance of this system, continues.

general information

Amazon basin countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia.

Largest port cities: Manaus, Iquitos, Makala, Santarem.

Origins: Marakion, Ukayali (originate in the Andes).

Largest tributaries: right - Zhurua, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Shingu, Tocantins; left - Isa Japura, Rio Negro.

Mouth: Atlantic Ocean

Figures

Length: about 7000 km.

Average mouth water flow: 219 000 m 3 / s

Pool Area: 7,050,000 km 2.
Average depth in rainy season: 40 m, maximum (at the mouth) - 140 m.

Width at mouth: 330 km (including Pair).

Amazon Jungle Area: 5 500 000 km 2.

Economy

Natural resources: wood, rubber.

Fishing.

Shipping.

Forestry.

Climate and weather

Equatorial, wet.

Average annual temperature: + 25ºС.

Annual precipitation: 2000-3000 mm.

sights

■ Flora and fauna;
■ Manaus (Brazil): Museum of the Indians, floating markets, Rio Negro Palace, azulejos blue ceramics;
■ Iquitos (Peru): close to Pacaya Samiriya National Parks, Amakayaku, and others;
■ Santarem (Brazil): Ancient Amazonian ceramics.

Curious facts

■ The Amazon is a river without a single bridge. It's not about its gigantic size: the width of the river does not go beyond modern engineering capabilities. For the most part, the Amazon flows through the rainforest, where there are very few roads and even fewer cities, so there is simply no need for bridges.
■ The Amazon and the jungle surrounding it are the habitats of amazing animals and plants. There are more than 2500 species of fish alone (one third of the freshwater fauna of the globe), including a giant arapaima. reaching 3-4 m in length, and electric ramp, and piranha. River dolphins live here, anacondas and caimans share shallow water, capybaras and tapirs, jaguars and ocelots live on the banks, and monkeys, sloths, parrots, toucans and hummingbirds live on the crowns of trees.
■ Since the slope of the Amazon lowland is very small, and the river does not have a delta protruding beyond the coastline (the ocean carries all the silt brought by the river), the influence of the ocean is very strong in the lower reaches of the Amazon: tides spread up the river for a thousand kilometers. The local Indians called this phenomenon vicious, or "booming water." From the collision of river waters with a tidal wave, a steep water ramp up to 6 m high is formed, which rolls up the river branches with a roar and rumble, sweeping away everything in its path. This was the first time the expedition of Francisco de Orellana encountered.
■ The amount of river flow at the Amazon is greater than the ten following the largest river in the world combined.
■ Only in the Amazon there is a tambaka fish, which feeds on the fruits of palm trees and rubber trees falling into the water, easily cutting through the bones.

Amazon (port. Amazonas) is a river in South America, the largest in the world in terms of basin size, full flow and the length of the river system. Formed by the confluence of the Maranion and Ukayali rivers. The length of the Maranhon from the source is 6400 km, Ukayali is over 7000 km. The Amazon is also fed by numerous tributaries; about 20 of them are more than 1,500 km long. The most significant tributaries: on the right - Zhurua, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Shingu, Tokantins; on the left - Isa, Japura, Rio Negru.
Together with its tributaries, the Amazon forms a system of inland waterways with a total length of more than 25 thousand km. Amazon is a deep sea river. At the place where it flows into the ocean, its depth reaches 100 meters and very slowly decreases its value upstream. Even at a distance of 3,000 km from the mouth, the water column reaches 20 meters, so for ocean ships, the water of this river is a home. The last river port accepting sea vessels is in the city of Manaus, 1700 km away. from the mouth. River water transport snoops back and forth across the Amazon at a great distance of 4300 km. The main ports (from bottom to top): Belen, Santarem, Obidus, Manaus (Brazil), Iquitos (Peru).

The river is located in the north of South America, begins its journey from the Andes to Peru and ends in the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil. The length of the Amazon ranges from 6,259 to 6,800 km according to various sources. The Amazon River and its tributaries are 20% of all fresh water on the globe. Of the 20 longest rivers in the world, 10 are in the Amazon.
The Amazon was opened by conquistador Francisco de Orellana, the first of the Europeans to cross South America in its widest part. In the summer of 1542 his detachment
allegedly saw a tribe of legendary Amazons and joined the battle with them. Today it is believed that they were either Native American women - fighting alongside men, or arms-lovers, or simply long-haired Indians, whom the Spaniards mistook for women. Initially, de Aurellana wanted to name the river by his own name, but after the battle he settled on the Amazon.
Most of the Amazon basin belongs to Brazil, the southwestern and western regions - Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. For the most part flowing along the Amazon lowland in a sub-latitudinal direction near the equator, the Amazon flows into the Atlantic Ocean, forming the largest delta in the world.
The Amazon River is the most aquiferous river in the world, carrying one fifth of fresh water to the globe into the ocean. The flow of water is so huge that, pouring into the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon changes the salt composition and color of the ocean over 320 kilometers.
The Amazon’s fullness is explained by the fact that its northern and southern tributaries are in different hemispheres; accordingly, floods occur at different times of the year: on the right tributaries - from October to April (summer season in the Southern Hemisphere), on the left tributaries - from April to October (summer season in the Northern Hemisphere).

During the dry season, the Amazon River reaches a width of 11 kilometers, covering 110 thousand square meters with water. km, and in the rainy season it increases three times, covering 350 thousand square meters. km and spilling over 40 km or more.
Another achievement of the Amazon is the mouth of the river, the largest delta in the world, the width of which reaches 325 km. The Amazon Delta does not protrude into the waters of the Atlantic, but rather, is shifted inland. This is most likely due to the powerful ocean tides that constantly come into opposition with the mighty river flows. In this struggle, the cosmic forces of the moon prevail over the forces of the earth's surface. The tide begins to squeeze fresh water - it drives it back to the mouth.
The result of this counteraction is a huge shaft of water, which reaches a height of four meters. It rolls up a wide front upstream at a speed of 25 km / h. The wave height gradually decreases, the speed decreases, but this happens far from the border with the ocean. The impact of the tide is felt even at a distance of more than 1000 km from the mouth of the river.
Here, the fresh stream is so great that it dilutes sea salt by almost 300 km. from the mouth. This attracts many species of sharks into the river, which you don’t feed with bread, but let them hang out in fresh water. These terrible predators rise upstream of the Amazon for 3,500 km.
The rainy season here begins in March and lasts until May. Heavy rainfall provokes a flood of rivers. In the Amazon, the water level rises by 20 meters, flooding everything around for tens of kilometers. The flood lasts 120 days, then the river retreats to its original banks, sometimes in some places it changes its course.

Amazon Flora and Fauna

In fact, Amazonia is a jungle and swamps that stretch parallel to the equator, so the climatic conditions are almost the same throughout the lowland. The temperature here is high and stable. The whole year keeps 25-28 ° Celsius. Even at night, the temperature almost never drops below 20 ° Celsius.
Here flora inhabits only 30% studied by scientists. 25% of all medicinal substances of the world that are used in medicine are extracted from plants of the Amazon forest. 1800 species of birds, 250 different mammals, 1500 different species of fish - all this makes up the flora and fauna of the Amazon.
Many secrets are hidden in the forests: even today, many large tributaries of the Amazon have not been explored. Of the approximately 15,000 species of Amazonian animals, thousands of birds and fish, as well as hundreds of mammals, are not classified. An approximate list of animal species, some of them known, others rare, and others on the verge of extinction, includes a jaguar, tapir, bakers, arachnid monkey, sloth, armadillo, caiman crocodile, freshwater dolphin, boa, anaconda.
Among the forest birds - toucan, parrot, macaw, caliber, as well as gaviao. Among insects, more than 1800 species of butterflies and over 200 species of mosquitoes are observed. Fish such as piranha, tukunare, piraraco, anuana, piraiba, poreca (electric eel) exist in such a variety that biologists cannot identify the catch in Belem markets.

Hamza Underground River

According to the Department of Geophysics of the Brazilian National Observatory, in the same direction with the Amazon, but at a depth of 4 thousand meters, an underground river flows, fed by groundwater. Its runoff is estimated at 3 thousand m³ / s.
The river, originating in the foothills of the Andes, with a length of 6 thousand kilometers stretches from west to east to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean almost under the Amazon river basin. This scientific discovery was made public in August 2011 after a statement made at a meeting of the Brazilian Geophysical Society in Rio de Janeiro. The river is unofficially named Hamza (port. Rio Hamza) in honor of the pioneer scientist Valiy Hamza (port. V. Hamza), born in India, who has been researching the river for more than 45 years.
In the course of the study, it turned out that, with the exception of the direction of the current, the Amazon (land) and Hamza (underground) rivers have significantly different characteristics, the most obvious of which are their width and flow rate. While the width of the Amazon River varies from one to one hundred kilometers, the underground Hamza River reaches a width of 200-400 kilometers. However, the flow rate in the Amazon is five meters per second, and the speed in the underground river does not exceed 1 millimeter per second.
So, the Hamza River flows extremely slowly at a depth of about 4 thousand meters underground through porous soils parallel to the Amazon. According to preliminary estimates, the width of Khamza reaches 400 km, and the water flow is approximately 3900 m³ / s. The flow rate of Khamza is only a few meters per year. This is even slower than the glaciers are moving, so it can be called a river rather arbitrarily. Hamza flows into the Atlantic Ocean at great depths and the water of the Hamza River has a high salinity level.




So, is this Great Amazon River the longest river of our planet? The Brazilian National Center for Space Research (INPE) states that the Amazon is still the longest river in the world. Center experts studied the water artery flowing in the north of the South American continent using satellite data. They uncovered one of the greatest geographic mysteries, finding a place where a river is born crossing Peru, Colombia and Brazil before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. This point is located in the mountains in the south of Peru, and not in the north of the country, as previously thought. At the same time, scientists installed several satellite beacons that greatly facilitated the task of experts from INPE. Now, according to the National Center for Space Research, the Amazon is 6992.06 km long, while the Nile flowing in Africa is 140 km shorter (6852.15 km). So this makes the South American river not only the deepest, but also the longest in the world. Until that moment, the Amazon was officially recognized as the most full-flowing river, however, in length it was always considered second after the Nile (Egypt).

According to the materials. latino-america.ru

AMAZONA (Amazonas), the river in South America, the largest in the world in length, size of the basin and water content. The Indians call A. Parana Tinga (White River) and Parana Guasu (Great River). A. formed at the confluence of the Maranion and Ucayali rivers, originating in the Andes. Length from source of Maranion approx. 6.4 thousand km, from the source of Ukayali - about 7.1 thousand km. Pl. basin (taking into account the inflow basin Tocantins) 7180 thousand km 2. The B. h. Of the basin is located in Brazil; the southwestern and western regions are in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. It flows mainly along the Amazon lowland in a sub-latitudinal direction near the equator, flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

The most abundant left component of A. - the Maranion River - originates on the eastern slopes of the Western Cordillera in Peru at an altitude of 4840 m, flows in the mountains parallel to the Pacific Ocean in a deep basin, then turns east, breaks through the Andes, forming 27 so-called. Pongo (rocky deep narrow gorges with almost sheer walls). After exiting the mountains, it flows along the Amazonian lowland and merging with the Ukayali river, suitable on the right, gives rise to A. The riverbed A. is framed by low banks, descending to the river in three broad steps: the upper step (terra firma), the unsinkable shore formed by the root slope of the valley, height up to 50 m and more; middle stage (varzea), part of the floodplain flooded during large spills A .; lower step (igapo, or swamp), floodplain, flooded during normal floods of the river. Below the confluence of the Rio Negro River, the width of the floodplain is 80–100 km; the cities of Obidus and Santarem are slightly narrower. On the floodplain - numerous sleeves, canals, lakes and elders; along the coast - low river banks. 350 km from the ocean A. forms the largest delta in the world (area of \u200b\u200babout 100 thousand km 2). The main part of the runoff passes along the northeastern branches, part of the waters - along the eastern branch of the Para; between them is the largest river island in the world - Marajo (an area of \u200b\u200b48 thousand km 2).

A. collects water from 40% of the area of \u200b\u200bSouth America, taking more than 500 large tributaries, 17 of which are 1600–3500 km long. Main tributaries: Zhurua, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Shingu, Tocantins (right); Napo, Isa, Japura, Rio Negro (left). The highest water availability is the tributaries of Madeira, Rio Negro and Japura. The width of the river after the confluence of Maranyon and Ukayali is about 2 km, in the middle reaches up to 5 km, in the lower reaches up to 20 km, in front of the mouth 80-150 km; the depth of the channel in the middle course is about 70 m, near the town of Obidus, up to 135 m, at the mouth 15–45 m. The tributaries bring different colors to A. inflow: dark (Riu Negru river), white muddy (Zhurua, Purus, Madeira rivers) ), greenish (Tapajos river); there are tributaries with yellow, gray and even reddish color of water. A. is the only river in the world with such an abundance of colored waters. The main source of moisture in the Amazon is rainfall brought by air masses from the Atlantic. In the zone of humid tropical forests covering the basin A., an average of up to 2000 mm of precipitation falls annually, in the mouth and in the north-west of the Amazon (in the foothills of the Andes) - St. 3000 mm, in some areas of the Andes - up to 6000 mm. The river is full throughout the year. The rainy season begins alternately: in the Southern Hemisphere (October - April) - on the right tributaries, in the Northern Hemisphere (March - September) - on the left tributaries, therefore, seasonal fluctuations in flow are smoothed out. Characterized by high relative humidity (75–100%), volatility compared to heavy rainfall and a high radiation balance (2900–3800 MJ / m 2) is low - rarely exceeds 1200 mm per year. The maximum values \u200b\u200bof evaporation (1500 mm per year) were noted in the northeast of the Amazon and between the mouths of A. and the Orinoco River. The A. pool is characterized by lateritic podzolized soils of a reddish-yellow color, which form on the weathering crust with a thickness of tens meters that is difficult to distinguish by color and structure, with high permeability. The average long-term water consumption of A. on hydrological. Obidus post (approx. 900 km from the ocean) 173 thousand m 3 / s (annual flow volume 5460 km 3). Downstream, A.'s runoff increases by 1820 km 3 / year as a result of the influx of large tributaries of Tapajos, Shingu, Tokantins, as well as an additional influx of water from the surface of the delta and land areas adjacent to the river (due to excess precipitation over evaporation). As a result, an average of 7,280 km 3 of river water (18% of the water flow of all rivers flowing into the World Ocean) enters the ocean annually. The desalination effect of A.'s huge water runoff affects the Atlantic Ocean at a distance of 900 km from the delta coast. The stock of suspended sediment is about 900 million tons / year. In terms of sediment discharge, A. is second only to the total sediment discharge Ganga and the Brahmaputra entering the common delta of these rivers.

The slope of the water surface of A. is insignificant; therefore, oceanic semidiurnal tides 3–5 m in size propagate up the river to a distance of approx. 1000 km (the largest value among the rivers of the world). In the arms of the delta, a tidal wave collapses, a phenomenon occurs boron (in A. it is called a viciousness - "booming water"). In one of the Native American dialects, the vice is called "amazuna" (some geographers consider the name of the river to be derived from this word).

The flora and fauna of A. are rich and unique. In the elders and ducts, the largest water lily in the world grows - Victoria regia (leaves up to 2 m in diameter). Up to 2,000 species of fish (1/3 of the entire freshwater fauna of the globe) inhabit the waters of A., including giant arapaima (length up to 5 m, weight up to 200 kg), electric eel, river stingrays, and predatory river sharks and piranha. Of the mammals, manatee (at the mouth), Amazonian dolphin. The black caiman and the largest of modern snakes - anacondas (up to 11.4 m long) are common.

A. has significant energy potential (approx. 280 million kWh per year), but its use is negligible. Together with its tributaries, A. forms one of the world's largest systems of inland waterways with a total length of more than 25 thousand km. It is navigable 4300 km from the ocean (to the Pongo de Manserice gorge); to the city of Manaus (1690 km from the ocean) rise ocean vessels. In A. - the ports of Belen (on the sleeve of Para), Santarem, Obidus (Brazil), Iquitos (Peru). The strongest impact on A.'s unique ecosystem is exerted by the construction of reservoirs, in which a huge amount of organic matter accumulates. These bodies of water become sources of dangerous diseases (e.g., visceral leishmaniasis, bankroftose filariasis) carried by insects. Mass deforestation of tropical rainforests in the A. basin is ecologically dangerous for the entire globe, because these forests are an important supplier of oxygen to the planet’s atmosphere.

The mouth of the river was discovered in 1500 by the Spanish Vicente Janes Pinson, who called A. "Rio Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce" - "St. Mary's River of the Fresh Sea" (due to desalination by the river of ocean waters). The first long-distance voyage along A. made in 1541–42 Spanish conquistador F. de Aurellana. For 172 days, his detachment sailed almost 6 thousand km. On the way, the Spaniards encountered warlike Native American tribes. Near the mouth of the Trombetas River, tall semi-naked women armed with bows fought in the forefront of the Indian warriors. They reminded the Spaniards of the ancient myth of the Amazons, so Orellana, according to one hypothesis, called the river Amazon.

The Indians call the Amazon “Parana Ting”, which means “Queen of the Rivers”. And indeed, this river in all respects is the greatest in the world.

It carries a quarter of all the waters carried into the ocean by the rivers of our planet. And the area of \u200b\u200bits basin - more than seven million square kilometers - allows you to place in it the entire mainland of Australia or a country such as the United States.

At the mouth, the Amazon is two hundred kilometers wide and a hundred meters deep! Even in the Peruvian city of Iquitos, three and a half thousand kilometers from the mouth, the depth of the river is more than twenty meters, so sea ships get here.

The Amazon’s fullness is explained simply: it flows almost exactly along the equator, and the usual summer rainy season for these places alternates either in the northern hemisphere (in March-September), on its left tributaries, or in the southern (from October to April) - on the right tributaries.

Thus, the great river actually lives in a constant flood.

Until recently, it was not known exactly where the origins of the Amazon are. Its length, together with the main of the two sources, the Ukayali River, was approximately 6565 kilometers, which put the Queen of the Rivers in second place in the world after the Nile, which is more than a hundred kilometers longer.

But an international expedition organized in 1995, having reached Ukayali upstream, discovered that this source, in turn, was formed from the confluence of two rivers: Apurimaka and Urubamba.

Going to the source of the Alurimak River, the researchers determined that the total length of the entire grandiose water system of Apurimak-Ukayali-Amazonka is 7025 kilometers and, therefore, it is the first in the world in length. The Nile with its origins, the White Nile, Albert Nile, Victoria Nile, Lake Victoria Kageroy is shorter by almost three hundred kilometers.

Seventeen of them are from 1800 to 3500 kilometers long. (This, by comparison, is the length of the Don and the Volga!) The huge mass of river water carried by the Amazon desalinates the sea 400 kilometers from the mouth.

The largest river island in the world, located in the Amazon delta - the island of Marajo, has an area of \u200b\u200b48 thousand square kilometers, that is, larger than Switzerland or the Netherlands, and the entire delta is larger than Bulgaria in area.

The river gets its name after the confluence of Ukayali with the Maranyon River.

Both sources begin in the Andes and break into the plain through the narrow rocky gorges - pongo. At the bottom of these gorges there is no place even for a narrow path - it is a continuous bubbling fierce stream with stones sticking out here and there, sometimes tapering to twenty meters.

Especially wayward character in Maranion. On the way from the mountains, he passes through 27 pongos. The lower, most formidable of them is Pongo de Manserice ("The Parrot Gate"). Having broken through the last canyon, the river goes to the vast plain of the Amazon and becomes navigable.

The Amazonian lowland, or Amazonia, is the greatest lowland on Earth. This is a vast kingdom of swamps and jungle, where the only roads are rivers.

However, there are plenty of these roads - after all, the rivers of the Amazon are navigable for eight thousand kilometers.

During floods, when the level of the Amazon rises by twenty meters, the low banks are flooded by 80-100 kilometers in the district.

Huge territories then represent a boundless sea with trees sticking out of the water.

In normal times, the Amazon does not look like a giant river, because it is divided into many branches, divided by islands.

Found on the river and floating islands, slowly moving downstream. They are formed by interwoven plant roots and trunks of fallen trees, on which new vegetation has risen.

The slope of the Amazonian lowlands is so small that the influence of ocean tides is noticeable here even for 1000 kilometers from the mouth of the river.

A feature of the Amazonian tides is the famous "vice."

From the collision of a mighty river with a tidal wave running towards it, a tall rampart crowned by a foamy ridge forms on the Amazon. He rolls up the river with a loud hum, sweeping away everything in his path.

Woe to the vessel, which does not have time to take shelter in the lateral duct or in the bay in advance - a roaring six-meter water wall will turn over and sink it.

From time immemorial, the Indians have experienced superstitious fear of this mysterious and formidable phenomenon, which they presented as some kind of terrible monster, devastating the coast and terrifying with its bubbling roar.

Hence the name of the formidable rampart - vice ("booming water").

The first through voyage in the Amazon from the Andes to the ocean was made in 1842 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Orellana. For eight months, his squad sailed on the river for almost six thousand kilometers.

Now it’s even hard to imagine what it cost the Spaniards this almost unbelievable journey across the whole continent without maps, without knowing the features of the river and the languages \u200b\u200bof local tribes, without food supplies, on a fragile home-made little ship.

Crocodiles and anacondas, piranhas and river sharks - all these “charms” of the Amazon, the squad of Orellana had to experience what is called their own skin.

More than once on the road, the Spaniards happened to encounter warlike Indians. In one place, at the mouth of the Trombetas River, the battle was especially fierce.

And most of all, the conquistadors were struck by the fact that in the front ranks of the Indian warriors tall semi-naked women armed with bows fought.

They stood out for their fearlessness even against the background of their fellow tribesmen. The brave warriors reminded the Spaniards of the ancient myth of the Amazons - women warriors who did not know defeat.

Therefore, Orellana and called the river Amazon.

Since then, a lot of scientists and researchers have visited the great river.

The Frenchman Condamine, the German Humboldt, the Englishman Bates and the Russian traveler Langsdorf at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries managed to penetrate the jungle of the Amazon and opened for science the amazing living world of the Queen of the Rivers and the surrounding rainforests.

2000 species of fish live in the waters of these rivers - a third of the diversity of the freshwater fish kingdom of the Earth. (In all the rivers of Europe - only 300 species.)

Among the unique inhabitants of the Amazon is a giant five-meter pyraruku (or arapaim), reaching 200 kilograms of weight.

A two-meter electric eel, knocking down a person with a 300-volt current discharge, huge river slopes with a deadly spike on its tail, a dangerous river shark and a small toothy piranha, terrifying the locals.

The aggressiveness of this predatory creature is indescribable. A hunter who shot a boar or a tapir from a boat often does not have time to sail with a trophy in tow to the coast: from a hefty carcass a flock of bloodthirsty fish leaves one skeleton.

It happens that for the herd to successfully cross the river, the shepherds have to sacrifice one cow, which, having previously hurt, is brought into the water below the crossing.

While the piranhas deal with the victim, the remaining animals manage to cross the ford. Even an angry predator caught in a fishing rod desperately wriggles in the hands of a fisherman, striving to bite off his finger with sharp, razor-sharp teeth.

There are huge manatees in the Amazon - relatives of a sea cow, and river dolphins, and five-meter crocodiles - black caimans, whose victims are often not only two-meter tapirs or miniature bakers-pigs who came to the watering place, but also reckless hunters.

True, the Indians still say that "one big crocodile is better than three small piranhas" ...

But the most famous, probably, the inhabitant of the Amazonian waters is the monstrous anaconda water boa. There are anacondas up to 12 meters long and two-meter in circumference!

However, hunters talk about fifteen - and even eighteen-meter snakes. It’s hard to imagine such a “living pipe” that could reach the ground, hanging from the roof of a six-story building.

Places where anacondas are found, and experienced Indians-hunters bypass. Not a single beast in the selva can resist the two hundred kilogram giantess (the Amazonian forests are called in Brazil). Even jaguars crossing the river sometimes become victims of anaconda.

And on the surface of calm old women and bays in the countless arms of the Amazon, one and a half meter leaves of the largest water lily in the world - Victoria Regia. Round, with the edges bent upwards, they resemble some strange green pans. On such a sheet, a child of about twelve to fourteen can sit quietly, like Thumbelina.

The Amazon rainforest is the richest in the number of species from all the forests growing on our planet. On ten square kilometers here you can count up to 1,500 different types of flowers, 750 species of trees, more than a hundred different mammals, 400 species of birds and many snakes, amphibians and insects.

Many of them are still unknown and not described.

The largest selva trees reach 90 meters in height and 12 meters in girth. Even their names sound like music: bertolecia, mamorana, cinnamon, zestrell, babasu, rattan, hevea ...

Many of them are of great value.

Tall bertolecia are famous for their delicious nuts. In one shell weighing several kilograms, there are up to two dozen of these nuts.

They are collected only in calm weather, as the “packaging” torn by the wind can put a careless collector on the spot.

The sweet and nutritious juice of the milk tree resembles milk to taste, and cocoa is obtained from the fruits of the chocolate tree.

Of course, everyone has heard about the fruits of the melon tree - papaya, and about Hevea, the main rubber of the modern world, and about the chinaceous tree, the bark of which gives mankind the only way to alleviate the attacks of malaria, this scourge of the rainforest.

There are a lot of trees and trees with beautiful colored wood, such as mahogany pau-brazil, which gave the name to the largest country in South America. And balsa wood is the lightest in the world. It is lighter than cork.

Giant rafts of gangads are built from balsa by rafting the forest down the Amazon, Rio Negro, Madeira and other large rivers. Such rafts sometimes reach hundreds of meters in length and twenty in width, so sometimes an entire village is located on them.

But most of all there are over a hundred species of palm trees in Amazonia! Almost all of them: coconut, babasu, tukuma, mukata, bakaba, zhupati and karana - benefit the person. Some with nuts, others with wood, still others with fiber, and others with aromatic juice.

And only the rattan palm residents of the Selva mercilessly curse.

This is the longest tree on earth (sometimes it reaches three hundred meters!) - in fact, a liana. Its thin trunk is dotted with sharp spikes.

Clinging to other trees, the rattan palm stretches up to the sun. By interlocking tree branches and trunks, it forms absolutely impenetrable prickly thickets.

No wonder the Indians call it the "rope of the devil."

Animals - inhabitants of the Selva - are no less diverse than plants. This is the largest beast of Amazonia - a shy and cautious tapir, and a giant capybara capybara - the world champion among rodents. (Imagine a good-natured “mouse” in two pounds weighing!)

There are many monkeys here, and quite different from their counterparts from Africa or Asia. Among them is the eerie wakiri, or “dead head,” whose white muzzle resembles a dead man's skull.

This one and a half meter cat is not afraid to attack even two meter anacondas!

And in December, ocelots arrange mating concerts at night, like our March cats.

The most inconspicuous and inactive beast of the Selva is, of course,. He spends his whole life hanging backwards on tree branches and slowly absorbing the foliage around him. In order not to move, he manages to turn his head not even 180, but 270 degrees!

This phlegmatic breathes only once every eight seconds. On land, if you happen to go down to earth, the sloth moves at a speed of 20 centimeters per minute, as in slow motion shooting.

"Agile simpleton," as the Brazilians jokingly call it, is a tasty prey for the jaguar, and for the ocelot, and for the boa constrictor, and even for the harpy eagle. The sloth is saved by the fact that in his coat ... algae, coloring his skin in a protective greenish color.

Because of this, a motionless sloth is almost indistinguishable on a branch, and a predator often does not notice it.

Vampire bats fly silently under the canopy of branches in the night darkness. Their small thin teeth are so sharp that a person bitten in a dream does not feel pain, and only, waking up in the morning, discovers that the pillow is covered in blood, and there is a tiny wound on his neck.

Of the hundreds of species of Selva birds, the most famous among us are, of course, tiny, the size of a bee,.

And huge, up to a meter in length, ara parrots. Their bright plumage, like the sparkling wings of numerous butterflies, enlivens the monotonous green of the forest.

And over the crowns of trees the most feathered feathered predator of the Amazon is hovering - the crested tropical eagle harpy the monkey-eater. Powerful muscles and five-centimeter claws make the harpy a real thunderstorm of small monkeys and sloths.

In the forests of the Amazon basin there are many snakes, including poisonous ones. It is no coincidence that Brazil ranks first in the world in the number of people who die annually from snake bites. But the Indians have long tamed small boas and kept them in huts to protect them from rodents and snakes.

A huge tarantula spider amazes and terrifies.

It feeds on careless hummingbirds that have fallen into its wide web like a fishing net. And Indian children, for the sake of mischief, sometimes throw a rope loop on this spider and lead along the village like a dog.

But the worst thing for the inhabitants of Selva is not formidable predators and poisonous snakes and spiders, but small sakasaya ants. They live in large colonies underground, but from time to time they come out from there in huge hordes and a deadly river move through the forest, destroying all life in its path.