The Amazon River begins in the Andes Mountains at the west of the basin with its main tributary the Marañón River and Apurimac River in Peru. The highest point in the watershed of the Amazon is the second biggest peak of Yerupajá at 6,635 metres.
With a length of about 6,400 km before it drains into the Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the two longest rivers in the world. A team of scientists has claimed that the Amazon is longer than the Nile,[2] but debate about its exact length continues.
The Amazon system transports the largest volume of water of any river system, accounting for about 20% of the total water carried to the oceans by rivers.
Some of the Amazon rainforests are deforested because of an increase in cattle ranches and soybean fields.
The Amazon basin formerly flowed west to the Pacific Ocean until the Andes formed, causing the basin to flow eastward towards the Atlantic Ocean.
