Amazon river facts: dimensions, history and wildlife

The Amazon River flows mostly through the Amazon rainforest and the Amazon basin. A beautiful piece of unspoiled nature located in South America, known for its dense forests and unique flora and fauna.

Amazon River in dimensions

The Amazon is the second longest river in the world. But it counts the most water, about 2% of all natural fresh water in the world.

The river rises at 5200 meters altitude in the snow of the Andes Mountains, more specifically, a glacier in Peru, some 190 km from the Pacific Ocean. Unlike many other rivers, the Amazon river choose for the longest possible path of 6516 km with hundreds snaked s-curves. With its 6516 km, the Amazon River is about two times longer than the Mississippi River and five times longer than the Rhine. To give you an idea of ​​its enormous length: this is approximately the distance from Berlin to New York.

From tributaries to the Atlantic

The Amazon has also other names such as: the Maranon. The river is joined by dozens of other rivers, including the Ucayali, so it enters Brazil. If the Amazon reached the Atlantic Ocean then the water of more than 1100 tributaries has been drained. If the Amazon reaches the coast, over more than 200000 cubic meters water come in to the Atlantic Ocean every second.

Over millions of years the water have trenched the ocean floor for about hundreds of kilometers in length. This is indicated by the yellow color that contrasts in a sharply degree with the blue color of the ocean. This freshwater streams from the coast some 320 kilometers away into the ocean.

The animal kingdom in and around the Amazon river

There live crocodiles, leopards, monkeys, exotic birds such as parrots and numerous of dangerous insects in and around the Amazon river. The water contains about 30 times more fish than in all European rivers together.

In particular, we have the pink river dolphins, they swim in the main river during the rainy season. So they swim and hunt in groups among the trees.

History

When the conquistador Francisco de Orellana in 1541, with his hundred men in his ship discharged, the winding Amazon River, he thought that the warriors that has poisoned his soldiers by bombard them with poisoned arrows, were women.

In the travelogue they were called 'Amazons' so the river became its name.

A bit of history and facts about the Amazon forest; the green lung of the world. Everyone should protect this unique piece of nature. And hopefully, our children and grandchildren can do this too.