Portuguese Rio Amazonas
River, northern South America.
It is the largest river in the world in volume and area of drainage basin, and only the Nile River of northeastern Africa exceeds it in length. It originates within 100 mi (160 km) of the Pacific Ocean in the Peruvian Andes Mountains and flows almost 4,000 mi (6,400 km) across northern Brazil into the Atlantic Ocean. Its Peruvian length is called the Marañón River; the stretch of river from the Brazilian border to the mouth of the Negro River is the Solimõ es River. Its more than 1,000 known tributaries rise in the Guiana Highlands, the Brazilian Highlands, and (principally) the Andes; 7 of these are longer than 1,000 mi (1,600 km), and the Madeira River is longer than 2,000 mi (3,200 km). The Amazon can accommodate large freighters as far upriver as the city of Manaus , Braz., 1,000 mi (1,600 km) from the Atlantic. The first European descent was made by Francisco de Orellana in 1541; he is said to have given the river its name after reporting battles with tribes of women, whom he likened to the Amazon s of Greek legend. Pedro Teixeira achieved the first ascent in 163739, but the river remained little explored until the mid-19th century. Many indigenous peoples originally lived along the river, but they moved inland as exploring parties and raiders (see bandeira ) sought to enslave them. The river was opened to world shipping in the 1860s; traffic increased exponentially with the coming of the rubber trade, which reached its height 0441; 1910 but soon declined. It is the site of the world's most extensive rainforest and hosts an extraordinary diversity of birds and wildlife. Since the 1960s the effects of economic exploitation on the region's ecology and the erosion of the rainforest have generated worldwide concern.