Apurímac River
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The Apurímac River (Spanish: Río Apurímac, pronounced [apuˈɾimak]) ("apu"=divinity "rimac"=oracle, talker) rises from glacial meltwater of the ridge of Nevado Mismi, a 5,597-meter high mountain in the Arequipa Province in southern Peru.
The Apurímac is the source of the world's largest river system, the Amazon River. It rises in Peru's south-western cordilleras, 10 km (7 miles) from the village of Caylloma, and less than 160 km (100 miles) from the Pacific coast.
It flows generally northwest past Cuzco in narrow gorges of up to 3,000 m, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA, its course interrupted by falls and rapids. Of the six attempts so far to travel the Apurímac in its full length, only two have been successful.
After 730,70 km, the Apurímac joins the Mantaro River and becomes the Ene River at , 440 m (1,325 ft.) above sea level; then after joining the Perené River at 330 m (984 ft.) above sea level, it becomes the Tambo River; when it joins the Urubamba at 280 m (859 ft.) above sea level the river becomes the Ucayali, which is the main headstream of the Amazon.
Sometimes the complete river from its source to its junction with the Ucayáli, i.e. including the rivers Ene and Tambo, is called "Apurímac", with a total length of 1,069.80 km.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
