The Peruvian source of the Amazon River

The Amazon River has long been recognized as the largest river in the world by volume – accounting for a fill fifth of the world’s total river flow. But a series of expeditions into the highlands of Southern Peru over the past decade have also established it as the longest river in the world.

This week, the Geographical Society of Lima is unveiling the findings of a 1996 expedition to find the source of the famous river led by Jacek Palkiewicz, an explorer of Italian and Polish descent.

That effort identified a small gorge on a slope of Nevado Mismi at 5,170 meters above sea level as the site of the start for the world’s largest and longest river. The waters form a small stream named Carhuasanta which flows into the Apurimac River and thence to the Amazon basin.

The Nevado Mismi point of origin makes the total length of the Amazon 6,800 kilometers(4,250 miles) exceeding the Nile by more than 100 kilometers (60 miles). A Brazilian expedition last year confirmed that result.

The location was confirmed in 2000 by a National Geographic Society expedition led by Andrew Pietowski, using GPS equipment to pinpoint the exact location of the Amazon’s source.

National Geographic had recognized the 18,363-foot-high (5,597-meter) mountain in southern Peru as the source since an expedition in 1971 but the precise location was not clear until Pietowski’s effort.