Amazon River

Beginning in the high Andes Mountains in Peru, the Amazon and its tributaries flow some 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) to the Atlantic through Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, and Brazil; by far the largest portion is in Brazil. Among the more than a thousand known tributaries, there are seven (Japurá, Juruá, Madeira, Negro, Purus, Tocantins, and Xingu) whose individual lengths exceed 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). The Madeira is more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from source to mouth.

The Amazon varies in width from 4 to 6 miles (6 to 10 kilometers); its mouth is more than 150 miles (240 kilometers) wide. The largest oceangoing steamers can ascend the river 1,000 miles to Manaus, a Brazilian inland port.

For most of its course the river flows just south of the Equator, and so the Amazonian climate is hot and humid. Annual rainfall amounts to about 50 inches (130 centimeters), while the average temperature over a year is about 85° F (30° C). Most of the Amazon Basin is a lowland forest of hardwoods and palms. The northeastern portion has extensive savannas, or grasslands, with occasional trees and shrubs.

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