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.
