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109-1056: The Tambo is part of the headwaters of the Amazon River whose origin is the Mantaro River at Cordilerra Ruminator Cruz . This Ucayali Region geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Peru is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Amazon River (Amazon–Ucayali–Tambo–Ené– Apurimac 6,400 km (4,000 mi) to 6,500 km (4,000 mi) (Period: 1971–2000)173,272.6 m /s (6,119,060 cu ft/s) (Period: 1928–1996)176,177 m /s (6,221,600 cu ft/s) (Period: 1903–2023)260,000 m /s (9,200,000 cu ft/s) The Amazon River ( UK : / ˈ æ m ə z ən / , US : / ˈ æ m ə z ɒ n / ; Spanish : Río Amazonas , Portuguese : Rio Amazonas ) in South America

218-453: A "manly weapon" should have been invented by a "tribe of women", but he accepts the attribution out of respect for his authority, Johannes Aventinus . Ariosto 's Orlando Furioso contains a country of warrior women, ruled by Queen Orontea; the epic describes an origin much like that in Greek myth, in that the women, abandoned by a band of warriors and unfaithful lovers, rallied together to form

327-609: A bluff 17 m (56 ft) above the river is backed by low hills. The lower Amazon seems to have once been a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean, the waters of which washed the cliffs near Óbidos. Amazons The Amazons ( Ancient Greek : Ἀμαζόνες Amazónes , singular Ἀμαζών Amazōn ; in Latin Amāzon , -ŏnis ) were a people in Greek mythology , portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as

436-470: A child's status was determined by the mother's reputation. This remarkably high esteem of women and legal regulations based on maternal lines, still in effect in the 5th century BC in the Lycian regions that Herodotus had traveled to, suggested to him the idea that these people were descendants of the mythical Amazons. Modern historiography no longer relies exclusively on textual and artistic material, but also on

545-671: A detailed account of the bad reputation Amazons had in the Renaissance. She notes that she has not found any Elizabethans comparing the Queen to an Amazon and suggests that they might have hesitated to do so because of the association of Amazons with enfranchisement of women, which was considered contemptible. Elizabeth was present at a tournament celebrating the marriage of the Earl of Warwick and Anne Russell at Westminster Palace on 11 November 1565 involving male riders dressed as Amazons. They accompanied

654-532: A few days downriver by ascending another river to the north. De Orellana took about 57 men, the boat, and some canoes and left Pizarro's troops on 26 December 1541. However, De Orellana missed the confluence (probably with the Aguarico ) where he was searching supplies for his men. By the time he and his men reached another village, many of them were sick from hunger and eating "noxious plants", and near death. Seven men died in that village. His men threatened to mutiny if

763-688: A few hills, and the river enters the enormous Amazon rainforest . Although the Ucayali–Marañón confluence is the point at which most geographers place the beginning of the Amazon River proper, in Brazil the river is known at this point as the Solimões das Águas . The river systems and flood plains in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, whose waters drain into the Solimões and its tributaries, are called

872-461: A fourth found it profitable to navigate some of the smaller streams. In that same period, the Amazonas Company was increasing its fleet. Meanwhile, private individuals were building and running small steam craft of their own on the main river as well as on many of its tributaries. On 31 July 1867, the government of Brazil, constantly pressed by the maritime powers and by the countries encircling

981-571: A great number of them at a site since called Panaema (blood-soaked field). The Christian author Eusebius writes that during the reign of Oxyntes , one of the mythical kings of Athens, the Amazons burned down the temple at Ephesus . In another myth Dionysus unites with the Amazons to fight against Cronus and the Titans . Polyaenus writes that after Dionysus has subdued the Indians, he allies with them and

1090-577: A joint campaign into the Land of Women , to the Middle East at the border to India. Petechonsis initially fought the Amazons, but soon fell in love with their queen Sarpot and eventually allied with her against an invading Indian army. This story is said to have originated in Egypt independently of Greek influences. Sources provide names of individual Amazons, that are referred to as queens of their people, even as

1199-423: A misunderstanding led to the fight. In the course of this, Heracles killed the queen and several other Amazons. In awe of the strong hero, the Amazons eventually handed the belt to Heracles. In another version, Heracles does not kill the queen, but exchanges her kidnapped sister Melanippe for the belt. Queen Hippolyte was abducted by Theseus , who took her to Athens, where she was married to him and bore him

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1308-604: A nation from which men were severely reduced, to prevent them from regaining power. The Amazons and Queen Hippolyta are also referenced in Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales in " The Knight's Tale ". Amazons continued to be subject of scholarly debate during the European Renaissance, and with the onset of the Age of Exploration , encounters were reported from ever more distant lands. In 1542, Francisco de Orellana reached

1417-487: A population of 1.9 million people in 2014, Manaus is the largest city on the Amazon. Manaus alone makes up approximately 50% of the population of the largest Brazilian state of Amazonas . The racial makeup of the city is 64% pardo (mulatto and mestizo) and 32% white . Although the Amazon river remains undammed, around 412 dams are in operation on the Amazon's tributary rivers. Of these 412 dams, 151 are constructed over six of

1526-564: A practice in ancient works of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts, although one is frequently covered. According to Philostratus , Amazon babies were not fed just with the right breast. Author Adrienne Mayor suggests that the false etymology led to the myth. Herodotus used the terms Androktones ( Ἀνδροκτόνες ) 'killers/slayers of men' or 'of husbands' and Androleteirai ( Ἀνδρολέτειραι ) 'destroyers of men, murderesses'. Amazons are called Antianeirai ( Ἀντιάνειραι ) 'equivalent to men' and Aeschylus used

1635-480: A second line to make six round voyages a year between Manaus and Tabatinga, and a third, two trips a month between Pará and Cametá. This was the first step in opening up the vast interior. The success of the venture called attention to the opportunities for economic exploitation of the Amazon, and a second company soon opened commerce on the Madeira, Purús, and Negro; a third established a line between Pará and Manaus, and

1744-530: A son, Hippolytus . In other versions, the kidnapped Amazon is called Antiope , the sister of Hippolyte. In revenge, the Amazons invaded Greece, plundered some cities along the coast of Attica, and besieged and occupied Athens. Hippolyte, who fought on the side of Athens, according to another account was killed during the final battle along with all of the Amazons. According to Plutarch , the god Dionysus and his companions fought Amazons at Ephesus . The Amazons fled to Samos and Dionysus pursued them and killed

1853-550: Is mentioned in the Iliad as the place of Myrine 's death. Later identified as an Amazon queen, according to Diodorus (1st century BC), the Amazons under her rule invaded the territories of the Atlantians , defeated the army of the Atlantian city of Cerne, and razed the city to the ground. The Poet Bacchylides (6th century BC) and the historian Herodotus (5th century BC) located

1962-427: Is said to have killed the hero Clonus of Moesia , son of Doryclus , with her javelin. Stephanus of Byzantium (7th-century CE) provides numerous alternative lists of the Amazons, including for those who died in combat against Heracles, describing them as the most prominent of their people . Both Stephanus and Eustathius connect these Amazons with the placename Thibais , which they claim to have been derived from

2071-760: Is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the longest or second-longest river system in the world , a title which is disputed with the Nile . The headwaters of the Apurímac River on Nevado Mismi had been considered for nearly a century the Amazon basin 's most distant source until a 2014 study found it to be the headwaters of the Mantaro River on the Cordillera Rumi Cruz in Peru . The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form

2180-470: Is the largest drainage basin in the world, with an area of approximately 7,000,000 km (2,700,000 sq mi). The portion of the river's drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other river's basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean , yet already has a greater flow at this point than the discharge of any other river in

2289-461: Is the largest river branch one encounters when journeying upstream, and lies farther to the west than any other tributary of the Amazon. For most of the 18th–19th centuries and into the 20th century, the Marañón was generally considered the source of the Amazon. Early scientific, zoological, and botanical exploration of the Amazon River and basin took place from the 18th century through the first half of

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2398-745: The Amazon River , naming it after the Icamiabas  [ pt ] , a tribe of warlike women he claimed to have encountered and fought on the Nhamundá River , a tributary of the Amazon. Afterwards the whole basin and region of the Amazon ( Amazônia in Portuguese, Amazonía in Spanish) were named after the river. Amazons also figure in the accounts of both Christopher Columbus and Walter Raleigh . Beginning around 550 BC. depictions of Amazons as daring fighters and equestrian warriors appeared on vases. After

2507-646: The Amazon warriors , a tribe of women warriors related to Iranian Scythians and Sarmatians mentioned in Greek mythology . The word Amazon itself may be derived from the Iranian compound * ha-maz-an- "(one) fighting together" or ethnonym * ha-mazan- "warriors", a word attested indirectly through a derivation, a denominal verb in Hesychius of Alexandria 's gloss "ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι" (" hamazakaran : 'to make war' in Persian"), where it appears together with

2616-653: The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC the Amazon battle - Amazonomachy became popular motifs on pottery. By the sixth century BC, public and privately displayed artwork used the Amazon imagery for pediment reliefs, sarcophagi, mosaics, pottery, jewelry and even monumental sculptures, that adorned important buildings like the Parthenon in Athens. Amazon motifs remained popular until the Roman imperial period and into Late antiquity . Apart from

2725-582: The Iliad and several other epics, is one of the works that in combination form the Trojan War Epic Cycle . In one of the few references to the text, an Amazon force under queen Penthesilea , who was of Thracian birth, came to join the ranks of the Trojans after Hector 's death and initially put the Greeks under serious pressure. Only after the greatest effort and the help of the reinvigorated hero Achilles ,

2834-561: The Indo-Iranian root * kar- "make" (from which Sanskrit karma is also derived). Other scholars claim that the name is derived from the Tupi word amassona , meaning "boat destroyer". Recent geological studies suggest that for millions of years the Amazon River used to flow in the opposite direction - from east to west. Eventually the Andes Mountains formed, blocking its flow to

2943-486: The Indo-Iranian root *kar- 'make'. It may alternatively be a Greek word descended from *n̥-mn̥gʷ-yō-nós 'manless, without husbands' ( alpha privative combined with a derivation from *man- cognate with Proto-Balto-Slavic *mangjá- , found in Czech muž ) has been proposed, an explanation deemed "unlikely" by Hjalmar Frisk . A further explanation proposes Iranian * ama-janah 'virility-killing' as source. Among

3052-563: The Labours of Heracles , the Argonautica and the Iliad . They were female warriors and hunters, known for their physical agility, strength, archery, riding skills, and the arts of combat. Their society was closed to men and they raised only their daughters and returned their sons to their fathers, with whom they would only socialize briefly in order to reproduce. Courageous and fiercely independent,

3161-508: The Pacific Ocean , and causing it to switch directions to its current mouth in the Atlantic Ocean . During what many archaeologists called the formative stage , Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South America's highland agrarian systems. The trade with Andean civilizations in the terrains of the headwaters in the Andes formed an essential contribution to

3270-751: The Río Apurímac . A 2014 study by Americans James Contos and Nicolas Tripcevich in Area , a peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Geographical Society , however, identifies the most distant source of the Amazon as actually being in the Río Mantaro drainage. A variety of methods were used to compare the lengths of the Mantaro river vs. the Apurímac river from their most distant source points to their confluence, showing

3379-676: The Ucayali River , which in turn meets the Marañón River upstream of Iquitos, Peru , forming what countries other than Brazil consider to be the main stem of the Amazon. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro forming what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters ( Portuguese : Encontro das Águas ) at Manaus , the largest city on

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3488-406: The ancient Greeks , the term Amazon was popularly folk etymologized as originating from the Greek ἀμαζός , amazos ('breastless'), from - a ('without') and mazos , a variant of mastos ('breast'), connected with an etiological tradition once claimed by Marcus Justinus who alleged that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out . There is no indication of such

3597-563: The rubber boom it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants, such as typhus and malaria , killed 40,000 native Amazonians. The first direct foreign trade with Manaus commenced around 1874. Local trade along the river was carried on by the English successors to the Amazonas Company—the Amazon Steam Navigation Company—as well as numerous small steamboats, belonging to companies and firms engaged in

3706-589: The upper Amazon basin, especially Peru, decreed the opening of the Amazon to all countries, but they limited this to certain defined points: Tabatinga – on the Amazon; Cametá – on the Tocantins; Santarém – on the Tapajós; Borba – on the Madeira, and Manaus – on the Rio Negro. The Brazilian decree took effect on 7 September 1867. Thanks in part to the mercantile development associated with steamboat navigation coupled with

3815-655: The "Companhia de Navegação e Comércio do Amazonas" in Rio de Janeiro in 1852; in the following year it commenced operations with four small steamers, the Monarca ('Monarch'), the Cametá , the Marajó and the Rio Negro . At first, navigation was principally confined to the main river; and even in 1857 a modification of the government contract only obliged the company to a monthly service between Pará and Manaus, with steamers of 200 tons cargo capacity,

3924-577: The "Upper Amazon". The Amazon proper runs mostly through Brazil and Peru, and is part of the border between Colombia and Peru. It has a series of major tributaries in Colombia , Ecuador and Peru , some of which flow into the Marañón and Ucayali , and others directly into the Amazon proper. These include rivers Putumayo , Caquetá , Vaupés , Guainía , Morona , Pastaza , Nucuray, Urituyacu, Chambira , Tigre , Nanay , Napo , and Huallaga . At some points,

4033-600: The "land without people" in the Amazon Basin. This was done in conjunction with infrastructure projects mainly the Trans-Amazonian Highway ( Transamazônica ). The Trans-Amazonian Highway's three pioneering highways were completed within ten years but never fulfilled their promise. Large portions of the Trans-Amazonian and its accessory roads, such as BR-317 (Manaus- Porto Velho ), are derelict and impassable in

4142-570: The 19th century. The Cabanagem revolt (1835–1840) was directed against the white ruling class. It is estimated that from 30% to 40% of the population of Grão-Pará , estimated at 100,000 people, died. The population of the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin in 1850 was perhaps 300,000, of whom about 175,000 were Europeans and 25,000 were slaves. The Brazilian Amazon's principal commercial city, Pará (now Belém), had from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, including slaves. The town of Manáos, now Manaus, at

4251-528: The 20th century. Wary of foreign exploitation of the nation's resources, Brazilian governments in the 1940s set out to develop the interior, away from the seaboard where foreigners owned large tracts of land. The original architect of this expansion was president Getúlio Vargas , with the demand for rubber from the Allied forces in World War II providing funding for the drive. In the 1960s, economic exploitation of

4360-653: The Amazon Thiba's name. Several of Stephanus' Amazons served as eponyms for cities in Asia Minor, like Cyme and Smyrna or Amastris , who was believed to lend her name to the city previously known as Kromna , although in fact it was named after the historical Amastris . The city Anaea in Caria was named after an Amazon. In his work Getica (on the origin and history of the Goths , c.  551 CE ) Jordanes asserts that

4469-413: The Amazon River." In March 1500, Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first documented European to sail up the Amazon River. Pinzón called the stream Río Santa María del Mar Dulce , later shortened to Mar Dulce , literally, sweet sea , because of its freshwater pushing out into the ocean. Another Spanish explorer, Francisco de Orellana , was the first European to travel from

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4578-570: The Amazon basin was seen as a way to fuel the "economic miracle" occurring at the time. This resulted in the development of "Operation Amazon", an economic development project that brought large-scale agriculture and ranching to Amazonia. This was done through a combination of credit and fiscal incentives. However, in the 1970s the government took a new approach with the National Integration Program (PIN). A large-scale colonization program saw families from northeastern Brazil relocated to

4687-700: The Amazon homeland in Pontus at the southern shores of the Black Sea, and the capital Themiscyra at the banks of the Thermodon (modern Terme river ), by the modern city of Terme . Herodotus also explains how it came to be that some Amazons would eventually be living in Scythia . A Greek fleet, sailing home upon defeating the Amazons in battle at the Thermodon river, included three ships crowded with Amazon prisoners. Once out at sea,

4796-416: The Amazon in 1541, more than 3 million indigenous people lived around the Amazon. These pre-Columbian settlements created highly developed civilizations. For instance, pre-Columbian indigenous people on the island of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population of 100,000 people. To achieve this level of development, the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest altered

4905-504: The Amazon myth. In 2019, a grave with multiple generations of female Scythian warriors, armed and in golden headdresses, was found near Voronezh in southwestern Russia. The origin of the word is uncertain. It may be derived from an Iranian ethnonym *ha-mazan- 'warriors', a word attested indirectly through a derivation, a denominal verb in Hesychius of Alexandria 's gloss "ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι" (" hamazakaran : 'to make war' in Persian"), where it appears together with

5014-399: The Amazon prisoners overwhelmed and killed the small crews of the prisoner ships and, despite not having even basic navigation skills, managed to escape and safely disembark at the Scythian shore. As soon as the Amazons had caught enough horses, they easily asserted themselves in the steppe in between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea and, according to Herodotus, would eventually assimilate with

5123-453: The Amazon queen resided at her capital Themiscyra , on the banks of the Thermodon river. Palaephatus , who himself might have been a fictional character, attempted to rationalize the Greek myths in his work On Unbelievable Tales . He suspected that the Amazons were probably men who were mistaken for women by their enemies because they wore clothing that reached their feet, tied up their hair in headbands, and shaved their beards. Probably

5232-411: The Amazon river is about 80 km longer than previously thought. Contos continued downstream to the ocean and finished the first complete descent of the Amazon river from its newly identified source (finishing November 2012), a journey repeated by two groups after the news spread. After about 700 km (430 mi), the Apurímac then joins Río Mantaro to form the Ene, which joins the Perene to form

5341-403: The Amazon will harm its biodiversity in the same way by "blocking fish-spawning runs, reducing the flows of vital oil nutrients and clearing forests". Damming the Amazon River could potentially bring about the "end of free flowing rivers" and contribute to an " ecosystem collapse " that will cause major social and environmental problems. The most distant source of the Amazon was thought to be in

5450-409: The Amazon, investigating many of its tributaries, including the Rio Negro, and covering a distance of over 10,000 km (6,200 mi). In what is currently in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, several colonial and religious settlements were established along the banks of primary rivers and tributaries for trade, slaving , and evangelization among the indigenous peoples of

5559-434: The Amazons once ruled a large part of Asia . Appian provides a vivid description of Themiscyra and its fortifications in his account of Lucius Licinius Lucullus ' Siege of Themiscyra in 71 BC during the Third Mithridatic War . An Amazon myth has been partly preserved in two badly fragmented versions around historical people in 7th century BC Egypt. The Egyptian prince Petechonsis and allied Assyrian troops undertook

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5668-433: The Amazons and takes them into his service, who serve him in his campaign against the Bactrians . Nonnus in his Dionysiaca reports about the Amazons of Dionysus, but states that they do not come from Thermodon. Amazons are also mentioned by biographers of Alexander the Great , who report of Queen Thalestris bearing him a child (a story in the Alexander Romance ). However, other biographers of Alexander dispute

5777-437: The Amazons had chosen to resettle beyond the borders of the Gargareans , an all-male tribe native to the northern foothills of the Caucasian Mountains . The Amazons and Gargareans had for many generations met in secrecy once a year during two months in spring, in order to produce children. These encounters would take place in accordance with ancient tribal customs and collective offers of sacrifices. All females were retained by

5886-493: The Amazons of Dionysus Androphonus ( Ἀνδροφόνους ) 'men slaying'. Herodotus stated that in the Scythian language, the Amazons were called Oiorpata , which he explained as being from oior 'man' and pata 'to slay'. The ancient Greeks never had any doubts that the Amazons were, or had been, real. Not the only people enchanted by warlike women of nomadic cultures, such exciting tales also come from ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China. Greek heroes of old had encounters with

5995-414: The Amazons themselves, and males were returned to the Gargareans. 5th century BC poet Magnes sings of the bravery of the Lydians in a cavalry-battle against the Amazons. Hippolyte was an Amazon queen killed by Heracles , who had set out to obtain the queen's magic belt in a task he was to accomplish as one of the Labours of Heracles . Although neither side had intended to resort to lethal combat,

6104-467: The Amazons, commanded by their queen, regularly undertook extensive military expeditions into the far corners of the world, from Scythia to Thrace , Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands , reaching as far as Arabia and Egypt . Besides military raids, the Amazons are also associated with the foundation of temples and the establishment of numerous ancient cities like Ephesos , Cyme , Smyrna , Sinope , Myrina , Magnesia , Pygela , etc. The texts of

6213-445: The Amazons, hoping they would kill him, yet Bellerophon slew them all. The youthful King Priam of Troy fought on the side of the Phrygians , who were attacked by Amazons at the Sangarios River . There are Amazon characters in Homer 's Trojan War epic poem, the Iliad , one of the oldest surviving texts in Europe ( around 8th century BC ). The now lost epic Aethiopis (probably by Arctinus of Miletus , 6th century BC), like

6322-551: The Amazons. The leader was Hiera, wife of Telephus . The Amazons are also said to have undertaken an expedition against the Island of Leuke , at the mouth of the Danube , where the ashes of Achilles were deposited by Thetis . The ghost of the dead hero so terrified the horses, that they threw off and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retreat. Virgil touches on the Amazons and their queen Penthesilea in his epic Aeneid (around 20 BC). The biographer Suetonius had Julius Caesar remark in his De vita Caesarum that

6431-564: The Apurímac river drainage for nearly a century. Such studies continued to be published even as recently as 1996, 2001, 2007, and 2008, where various authors identified the snowcapped 5,597 m (18,363 ft) Nevado Mismi peak, located roughly 160 km (99 mi) west of Lake Titicaca and 700 km (430 mi) southeast of Lima , as the most distant source of the river. From that point, Quebrada Carhuasanta emerges from Nevado Mismi, joins Quebrada Apacheta and soon forms Río Lloqueta which becomes Río Hornillos and eventually joins

6540-430: The Elder, Curtius, Plutarch, Arrian, and Pausanius advocated the greatness of the state, as Amazon myths served to discuss the creation of origin and identity for the Roman people. However, that changed over time. Amazons in Roman literature and art have many faces, such as the Trojan ally, the warrior goddess, the native Latin, the warmongering Celt, the proud Sarmatian, the hedonistic and passionate Thracian warrior queen,

6649-453: The Goths' ancestors, descendants of Magog , originally lived in Scythia, at the Sea of Azov between the Dnieper and Don Rivers . When the Goths were abroad campaigning against Pharaoh Vesosis , their women, on their own successfully fended off a raid by a neighboring tribe. Emboldened, the women established their own army under Marpesia , crossed the Don and invaded eastward into Asia. Marpesia's sister Lampedo remained in Europe to guard

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6758-410: The Greeks eventually triumphed. Penthesilea died fighting the mighty Achilles in single combat. Homer himself deemed the Amazon myths to be common knowledge all over Greece, which suggests that they had already been known for some time before him. He was also convinced that the Amazons lived not at its fringes, but somewhere in or around Lycia in Asia Minor - a place well within the Greek world. Troy

6867-483: The Portuguese portion of the Amazon basin has remained a land largely undeveloped by agriculture and occupied by indigenous people who survived the arrival of European diseases. Four centuries after the European discovery of the Amazon river, the total cultivated area in its basin was probably less than 65 km (25 sq mi), excluding the limited and crudely cultivated areas among the mountains at its extreme headwaters. This situation changed dramatically during

6976-469: The Scythians, whose descendants were the Sauromatae, the predecessors of the Sarmatians . Strabo (1st century BC) visits and confirms the original homeland of the Amazons on the plains by the Thermodon river. However, long gone and not seen again during his lifetime, the Amazons had allegedly retreated into the mountains. Strabo, however, added that other authors, among them Metrodorus of Scepsis and Hypsicrates claim that after abandoning Themiscyra,

7085-439: The Tambo, which joins the Urubamba River to form the Ucayali. After the confluence of Apurímac and Ucayali, the river leaves Andean terrain and is surrounded by floodplain . From this point to the confluence of the Ucayali and the Marañón, some 1,600 km (990 mi), the forested banks are just above the water and are inundated long before the river attains its maximum flood stage. The low river banks are interrupted by only

7194-483: The account by Herodotus . In his Histories (5th century BC) Herodotus claims that the Sauromatae (predecessors of the Sarmatians ), who ruled the lands between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, arose from a union of Scythians and Amazons. Herodotus also observed rather unusual customs among the Lycians of southwest Asia Minor. The Lycians obviously followed matrilineal rules of descent, virtue, and status. They named themselves along their maternal family line and

7303-529: The artistic desire to express the passionate womanhood of the Amazons in contrast with the manhood of their enemies, some modern historians interpret the popularity of Amazon in art as indicators of societal trends, both positive and negative. Greek and Roman societies, however, utilized the Amazon mythology as a literary and artistic vehicle to unite against a commonly-held enemy. The metaphysical characteristics of Amazons were seen as personifications of both nature and religion. Roman authors like Virgil, Strabo, Pliny

7412-448: The challengers carrying their heraldry. These riders wore crimson gowns, masks with long hair attached, and swords. Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel depicted the Battle of the Amazons around 1598, a most dramatic baroque painting , followed by a painting of the Rococo period by Johann Georg Platzer , also titled Battle of the Amazons . In 19th-century European Romanticism German artist Anselm Feuerbach occupied himself with

7521-413: The claim, including the highly regarded Plutarch . He noted a moment when Alexander's naval commander Onesicritus read an Amazon myth passage of his Alexander History to King Lysimachus of Thrace who had taken part in the original expedition. The king smiled at him and said: "And where was I, then?" The Talmud recounts that Alexander wanted to conquer a "kingdom of women" but reconsidered when

7630-625: The epic), descended from some Amazons and taken by Alexander from the Brahmans. John Tzetzes lists in Posthomerica twenty Amazons, who fell at Troy . This list is unique in its attestation for all the names but Antianeira , Andromache and Hippothoe. Other than these three, the remaining 17 Amazons were named as Toxophone , Toxoanassa , Gortyessa , Iodoce , Pharetre , Andro , Ioxeia , Oistrophe , Androdaixa , Aspidocharme , Enchesimargos , Cnemis , Thorece , Chalcaor , Eurylophe , Hecate , and Anchimache . Famous medieval traveller John Mandeville mentions them in his book: Beside

7739-447: The expedition turned back to attempt to rejoin Pizarro, the party being over 100 leagues downstream at this point. He accepted to change the purpose of the expedition to discover new lands in the name of the king of Spain, and the men built a larger boat in which to navigate downstream. After a journey of 600 km (370 mi) down the Napo River, they reached a further major confluence, at a point near modern Iquitos , and then followed

7848-455: The family Lauraceae ) are fairly common in that part of the Amazon and Pizarro probably saw some of these. The expedition reached the mouth of the Amazon on 24 August 1542, demonstrating the practical navigability of the Great River. In 1560, another Spanish conquistador , Lope de Aguirre , may have made the second descent of the Amazon. Historians are uncertain whether the river he descended

7957-648: The first Amazon queen, is the offspring of a romance between Ares the god of war and the nymph Harmonia of the Akmonian Wood , and as such a demigoddess. Early records refer to two events in which Amazons appeared prior to the Trojan War (before 1250 BC). Within the epic context, Bellerophon , Greek hero, and grandfather of the brothers and Trojan War veterans Glaukos and Sarpedon , faced Amazons during his stay in Lycia , when King Iobates sent Bellerophon to fight

8066-521: The first in a long line of skeptics, he rejected any real basis for them, reasoning that because they did not exist during his time, most probably they did not exist in the past either. Decades of archaeological discoveries of burial sites of female warriors, including royalty, in the Eurasian Steppes suggest that the horse cultures of the Scythian , Sarmatian and Hittite peoples likely inspired

8175-658: The forest's ecology by selective cultivation and the use of fire. Scientists argue that by burning areas of the forest repeatedly, the indigenous people caused the soil to become richer in nutrients. This created dark soil areas known as terra preta de índio ("Indian dark earth"). Because of the terra preta, indigenous communities were able to make land fertile and thus sustainable for the large-scale agriculture needed to support their large populations and complex social structures. Further research has hypothesized that this practice began around 11,000 years ago. Some say that its effects on forest ecology and regional climate explain

8284-492: The head of a dynasty. Without a male companion, they are portrayed in command of their female warriors. Among the most prominent Amazon queens were: Quintus Smyrnaeus , author of the Posthomerica lists the attendant warriors of Penthesilea: " Clonie was there, Polemusa , Derinoe , Evandre , and Antandre , and Bremusa , Hippothoe , dark-eyed Harmothoe , Alcibie , Derimacheia , Antibrote , and Thermodosa glorying with

8393-537: The homeland. They procreated with men once a year. These women conquered Armenia, Syria and all of Asia Minor, even reaching Ionia and Aeolis , holding this vast territory for 100 years. In Digenes Akritas , the twelfth century medieval epic of Basil, the Greco-Syrian knight of the Byzantine frontier, the hero battles and then commits adultery with the female warrior Maximo (killing her afterwards in one version of

8502-591: The internationally driven demand for natural rubber , the Peruvian city of Iquitos became a thriving, cosmopolitan center of commerce. Foreign companies settled in Iquitos, from where they controlled the extraction of rubber. In 1851 Iquitos had a population of 200, and by 1900 its population reached 20,000. In the 1860s, approximately 3,000 tons of rubber were being exported annually, and by 1911 annual exports had grown to 44,000 tons, representing 9.3% of Peru's exports. During

8611-586: The land of Chaldea is the land of Amazonia, that is the land of Feminye. And in that realm is all woman and no man; not as some may say, that men may not live there, but for because that the women will not suffer no men amongst them to be their sovereigns. Medieval and Renaissance authors credit the Amazons with the invention of the battle-axe . This is probably related to the sagaris , an axe-like weapon associated with both Amazons and Scythian tribes by Greek authors (see also Thracian tomb of Aleksandrovo kurgan ). Paulus Hector Mair expresses astonishment that such

8720-412: The longer length of the Mantaro. Then distances from Lago Junín to several potential source points in the uppermost Mantaro river were measured, which enabled them to determine that the Cordillera Rumi Cruz was the most distant source of water in the Mantaro basin (and therefore in the entire Amazon basin). The most accurate measurement method was direct GPS measurement obtained by kayak descent of each of

8829-554: The main tributary rivers that drain into the Amazon. Since only 4% of the Amazon's hydropower potential has been developed in countries like Brazil, more damming projects are underway and hundreds more are planned. After witnessing the negative effects of environmental degradation, sedimentation, navigation and flood control caused by the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River, scientists are worried that constructing more dams in

8938-515: The most important is Queen Otrera , consort of Ares and mother by him of Hippolyta and Penthesilea. She is also known for building a temple to Artemis at Ephesus. Another different set of names is found in Valerius Flaccus ' Argonautica . He mentions Euryale , Harpe , Lyce , Menippe and Thoe . Of these Lyce also appears on a fragment, preserved in the Latin Anthology where she

9047-456: The mouth of the Rio Negro, had a population between 1,000 and 1,500. All the remaining villages, as far up as Tabatinga , on the Brazilian frontier of Peru, were relatively small. On 6 September 1850, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil sanctioned a law authorizing steam navigation on the Amazon and gave the Viscount of Mauá ( Irineu Evangelista de Sousa ) the task of putting it into effect. He organised

9156-562: The name ). Gonzalo Pizarro set off in 1541 to explore east of Quito into the South American interior in search of El Dorado , the "city of gold" and La Canela , the "valley of cinnamon ". He was accompanied by his second-in-command Francisco de Orellana . After 170 km (106 mi), the Coca River joined the Napo River (at a point now known as Puerto Francisco de Orellana );

9265-478: The original myths envisioned the homeland of the Amazons at the periphery of the then-known world. Various claims to the exact place ranged from provinces in Asia Minor ( Lycia , Caria , etc.) to the steppes around the Black Sea , or even Libya ( Libyan Amazon ). However, authors most frequently referred to Pontus in northern Anatolia , on the southern shores of the Black Sea, as the independent Amazon kingdom where

9374-549: The origins of the upstream river basins, situated in the Andes , to the mouth of the river. In this journey, Orellana baptized some of the affluents of the Amazonas like Rio Negro , Napo and Jurua . The name Amazonas is thought to be taken from the native warriors that attacked this expedition, mostly women, that reminded De Orellana of the mythical female Amazon warriors from the ancient Hellenic culture in Greece (see also Origin of

9483-502: The otherwise inexplicable band of lower rainfall through the Amazon basin . Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare . According to James S. Olson , "The Munduruku expansion (in the 18th century) dislocated and displaced the Kawahíb , breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups ... [Munduruku] first came to the attention of Europeans in 1770 when they began a series of widespread attacks on Brazilian settlements along

9592-480: The party stopped for a few weeks to build a boat just upriver from this confluence. They continued downriver through an uninhabited area, where they could not find food. Orellana offered and was ordered to follow the Napo River, then known as Río de la Canela ("Cinnamon River"), and return with food for the party. Based on intelligence received from a captive native chief named Delicola, they expected to find food within

9701-476: The power during an incursion in Europe and Asia, where they were slain. Marpesia's daughter Orithyia succeeded them and was greatly admired for her skill on war. She shared power with her sister Antiope , but she was engaged in war abroad when Heracles attacked. Two of Antiope's sisters were taken prisoner, Melanippe by Heracles and Hippolyta by Theseus. Heracles latter restored Melanippe to her sister after receiving

9810-501: The queen who commanded the Amazons in a military expedition in Libya, as well as her sister Mytilene , after whom she named the city of the same name . Myrina also named three more cities after the Amazons who held the most important commands under her, Cyme , Pitane , and Priene . Both Justin in his Epitome of Trogus Pompeius and Paulus Orosius give an account of the Amazons, citing the same names. Queens Marpesia and Lampedo shared

9919-540: The queen's arms in exchange, though, on other accounts she was killed by Telamon . They also mention Penthesilea's role in the Trojan War. Another list of Amazons' names is found in Hyginus ' Fabulae . Along with Hippolyta , Otrera , Antiope and Penthesilea , it attests the following names: Ocyale , Dioxippe , Iphinome , Xanthe , Hippothoe , Laomache , Glauce , Agave , Theseis , Clymene , Polydora . Perhaps

10028-532: The queens of their martial society and fought them. However, their original home was not exactly known, thought to be in the obscure lands beyond the civilized world . As a result, for centuries scholars believed the Amazons to be purely imaginary, although there were various proposals for a historical nucleus of the Amazons in Greek historiography. Some authors preferred comparisons to cultures of Asia Minor or even Minoan Crete . The most obvious historical candidates are Lycia and Scythia and Sarmatia in line with

10137-480: The rainy season. Small towns and villages are scattered across the forest, and because its vegetation is so dense, some remote areas are still unexplored. Many settlements grew along the road from Brasília to Belém with the highway and National Integration Program, however, the program failed as the settlers were unequipped to live in the delicate rainforest ecosystem. This, although the government believed it could sustain millions, instead could sustain very few. With

10246-477: The river divides into anabranches , or multiple channels, often very long, with inland and lateral channels , all connected by a complicated system of natural canals, cutting the low, flat igapó lands, which are never more than 5 m (16 ft) above low river, into many islands. From the town of Canaria at the great bend of the Amazon to the Negro, vast areas of land are submerged at high water, above which only

10355-437: The river. The Amazon River has an average discharge of about 215,000–230,000 m /s (7,600,000–8,100,000 cu ft/s)—approximately 6,591–7,570 km (1,581–1,816 cu mi) per year, greater than the next seven largest independent rivers combined. Two of the top ten rivers by discharge are tributaries of the Amazon river. The Amazon represents 20% of the global riverine discharge into oceans. The Amazon basin

10464-417: The rivers from their source points to their confluence (performed by Contos). Obtaining these measurements was difficult given the class IV–V nature of each of these rivers, especially in their lower "Abyss" sections. Ultimately, they determined that the most distant point in the Mantaro drainage is nearly 80 km farther upstream compared to Mt. Mismi in the Apurímac drainage, and thus the maximal length of

10573-494: The rubber trade, navigating the Negro, Madeira, Purús, and many other tributaries, such as the Marañón, to ports as distant as Nauta , Peru. By the turn of the 20th century, the exports of the Amazon basin were India-rubber , cacao beans , Brazil nuts and a few other products of minor importance, such as pelts and exotic forest produce ( resins , barks, woven hammocks , prized bird feathers , live animals) and extracted goods, such as lumber and gold. Since colonial times,

10682-520: The second type of mounds. They are best represented by the Marajoara culture . Figurative mounds are the most recent types of occupation. There is ample evidence that the areas surrounding the Amazon River were home to complex and large-scale indigenous societies, mainly chiefdoms who developed towns and cities. Archaeologists estimate that by the time the Spanish conquistador De Orellana traveled across

10791-564: The social and religious development of higher-altitude civilizations like the Muisca and Incas . Early human settlements were typically based on low-lying hills or mounds. Shell mounds were the earliest evidence of habitation; they represent piles of human refuse (waste) and are mainly dated between 7500 BC and 4000 BC. They are associated with ceramic age cultures ; no preceramic shell mounds have been documented so far by archaeologists . Artificial earth platforms for entire villages are

10900-479: The spear." Diodorus Siculus lists twelve Amazons who challenged and died fighting Heracles during his quest for Hippolyta's girdle: Aella , Philippis , Prothoe , Eriboea , Celaeno , Eurybia , Phoebe , Deianeira , Asteria , Marpe , Tecmessa , and Alcippe . After Alcippe's death, a group attack followed. Diodorus also mentions Melanippe , whom Heracles set free after accepting her girdle and Antiope as ransom. Diodorus lists another group with Myrina as

11009-471: The subdued Asian city, and the worthy Roman foe . In Renaissance Europe, artists started to reevaluate and depict Amazons based on Christian ethics. Queen Elizabeth of England was associated with Amazon warrior qualities ( the foremost ancient examples of feminism ) during her reign and was indeed depicted as such. Though, as explained in Divina Virago by Winfried Schleiner, Celeste T. Wright has given

11118-536: The term Styganor ( Στυγάνωρ ) 'those who loathe all men'. In his work Prometheus Bound and in The Suppliants , Aeschylus referred to the Amazons as 'the unwed, flesh-devouring Amazons' ( ...τὰς ἀνάνδρους κρεοβόρους τ᾽ Ἀμαζόνας ). In the Hippolytus tragedy, Phaedra calls Hippolytus , 'the son of the horse-loving Amazon' ( ...τῆς φιλίππου παῖς Ἀμαζόνος βοᾷ Ἱππόλυτος... ). In his Dionysiaca , Nonnus calls

11227-512: The upper Amazon, now known as the Solimões, for a further 1,200 km (746 mi) to its confluence with the Rio Negro (near modern Manaus ), which they reached on 3 June 1542. Regarding the initial mission of finding cinnamon, Pizarro reported to the king that they had found cinnamon trees, but that they could not be profitably harvested. True cinnamon ( Cinnamomum Verum ) is not native to South America. Other related cinnamon-containing plants (of

11336-459: The upper part of the trees of the sombre forests appear. Near the mouth of the Rio Negro to Serpa, nearly opposite the river Madeira, the banks of the Amazon are low, until approaching Manaus, they rise to become rolling hills. The Lower Amazon begins where the darkly colored waters of the Rio Negro meets the sandy-colored Rio Solimões (the upper Amazon), and for over 6 km (3.7 mi) these waters run side by side without mixing . At Óbidos,

11445-473: The vast archaeological evidence of over a thousand nomad graves from steppe territories from the Black Sea all the way to Mongolia. Discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons (bows and arrows, quivers, and spears) prove that women warriors were not merely figments of imagination, but the product of the Scythian/Sarmatian horse-centered lifestyle. According to myth, Otrera ,

11554-502: The vast rainforest, such as the Urarina . In the late 1600s, Czech Jesuit Father Samuel Fritz , an apostle of the Omagus established some forty mission villages. Fritz proposed that the Marañón River must be the source of the Amazon, noting on his 1707 map that the Marañón "has its source on the southern shore of a lake that is called Lauricocha , near Huánuco ." Fritz reasoned that the Marañón

11663-591: The women told him: If you kill us, people will say: Alexander kills women; and if we kill you, people will say: Alexander is the king whom women killed in battle. Virgil 's characterization of the Volsci warrior maiden Camilla in the Aeneid borrows from the myths of the Amazons. Philostratus , in Heroica , writes that the Mysian women fought on horses alongside the men, just as

11772-531: The world. The Amazon was initially known by Europeans as the Marañón , and the Peruvian part of the river is still known by that name, as well as the Brazilian state of Maranhão , which contains part of the Amazon. It later became known as Rio Amazonas in Spanish and Portuguese. The name Rio Amazonas was reportedly given after native warriors attacked a 16th-century expedition by Francisco de Orellana . The warriors were led by women, reminding de Orellana of

11881-502: Was the Amazon or the Orinoco River , which runs more or less parallel to the Amazon further north. Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira was the first European to travel up the entire river. He arrived in Quito in 1637, and returned via the same route. From 1648 to 1652, Portuguese Brazilian bandeirante António Raposo Tavares led an expedition from São Paulo overland to the mouth of

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