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Amazon, Port. Amazonas, world's second longest river, c.3,900 mi (6,280 km) long, formed by the junction in N Peru's Andes Mts. of two major headstreams, the Ucayali and the shorter Marañón. I...
Penthesilea, in Greek mythology, an Amazon queen. In the Trojan War, she led a troop of Amazons against the Greeks. She was killed by Achilles, who then fell in love with her dead body.
Acuña, Cristóbal de, 1597–1676?, Spanish Jesuit missionary and explorer in South America, rector of the Jesuit college at Cuenca, Ecuador. In 1638 he was sent by the viceroy to accompany Teixe...
Teixeira, Pedro, d. 1640, Portuguese explorer, one of the early voyagers on the Amazon. He commanded the expedition sent by the governor of Maranhão up the Amazon in the autumn of 1637. He rea...
Marañón, river, c.1,000 mi (1,600 km) long, rising in Lake Lauricaucha in the Cordillera Occidental, W central Peru. It flows generally NW, then E across the Andes to join the Ucayali River in...
Juruá, river, c.1,500 mi (2,410 km) long, rising in the Cerros de Canchyuaya, E Peru. It flows in a winding course generally NE through Acre and Amazonas states, W Brazil, to the Amazon River ...
Leticia, town (1993 pop. 17,758), capital of Amazonas commissary, SE Colombia, on the upper Amazon. The Leticia region, a narrow strip of land extending S of the Putumayo River to the Amazon, ...
Marajó, island, c.150 mi (240 km) long and c.100 mi (160 km) wide, N Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. It divides the river into the Amazon proper and the Pará. Cattle are raised on th...
Xingu, river, 1,230 mi (1,979 km) long, rising in central Mato Grosso state, Brazil, and winding north across Pará state into the Amazon River at the head of the Amazon delta. The Xingu, with ...
Iquitos, city (1993 pop. 252,312), capital of Loreto dept., NE Peru, on the Amazon River, c.2,300 mi (3,700 km) from the Amazon's mouth. It is the farthest inland port of any considerable size...
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