You know that the longest river in the world is Nile. So which is the largest? Which river carries the largest amount of water in it? It is the The Amazon river in  South America! It carries more water than any other river, even more than the water of Mississippi, Nile, and Yangtze rivers put together. Suprising isn’t it? But that’s true. Amazon starts from the Andes Mountains  and ends when it meets the Atlantic sea. On its way it flows through  Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia.

Amazon covers 6400 kilometres or 4,000 miles along its whole journey.  At some points it can be upto 11 kilometres wide! Whoa! That is so wide that it would be impossible to see one shore from the other, like an Ocean!!

But why is it so big? Hmmm there are two reasons. First its location – right at the equator where it rains almost everyday! Second is the slope of the land surrounding the river ( also called “Amazon River drainage basin”).
Imagine pouring water in a saucer. It will first collect into the low part of the saucer . In the same way, Whenever rain falls in the river basin , all water flows to the amazon river to create the enormous river.

Amazon has 1100 tributaries. Tributaries are small rivers that shoot out of the main river. Exactly like how branches shoot out from the main stem. look at the map above and you will see what i mean. 1100 tributaries! Can you believe it? Also there is something very peculiar about these. The tributaries of the Amazon River are two different colors –  “white” water rivers, which are really muddy and look much like your chocolate milkshake, The “black” water rivers are filled with tannin and look like black coffee! Because of the different kinds soil they carry the rivers do not mix properly until they flow for miles.

There is so much to talk about Amazon – the giant rainforests, the amusing animals, mystical cities and much more!! To know all about it, keep reading!! ;)