, name_etymology = , image = Maranon.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Valley of the Marañón between Chachapoyas ( Leimebamba) and

Celendín Celendín is an Andean town in northern Peru, capital of the province of Celendín, in the department of Cajamarca. It is on the road between the city of Cajamarca and the city of Chachapoyas. History The history of the city of Celendín begins ...

, map = Maranonrivermap.png , map_size = 270 , map_caption = Map of the Amazon Basin with the Marañón River highlighted , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_size = 270 , pushpin_map_caption= , subdivision_type1 = Country , subdivision_name1 =

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, subdivision_type2 = , subdivision_name2 = , subdivision_type3 = , subdivision_name3 = , subdivision_type4 = , subdivision_name4 = , subdivision_type5 = , subdivision_name5 = , length = , width_min = , width_avg = , width_max = , depth_min = , depth_avg = , depth_max = , discharge1_location= , discharge1_min = , discharge1_avg = , discharge1_max = , source1 =

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, source1_location = , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , mouth =

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

, mouth_location = , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = , basin_size = , tributaries_right =

Yanayacu Yana Yaku (Quechua ''yana'' black, ''yaku'' water, "black water", hispanicized spelling ''Yanayacu'') is a mountain in the northern part of the Cordillera Negra in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is situated in the Ancash Region, Santa Provinc ...

, Huallaga, Cahuapanas, Potro, Apaga, Saramiriza, Nieva, Cananya, Chiriaco, Congón, Rumirumi, Shuve, Chumuch, Pusac, Lavasen, Gansul, San Miguel, Challas River, Tantamayo, San Juan , tributaries_left = Tigre, Cunincu, Urituyacu, Nucuray, Ungumayo, Pastaza, Sasipahua,

Morona The Morona River is a tributary to the Marañón River, and flows parallel to the Pastaza River and immediately to the west of it, and is the last stream of any importance on the northern side of the Amazon before reaching the Pongo de Manseriche. ...

, Cangaza,

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, Cenepa, Chinchepe,

Choros Choros may refer to: * Choros (Oirats), a Mongolic people and historical clan * Chôros, a series of compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos * Choros (dance), Greek dances * Choros (Greek drama), an ancient Greek group of performers * Choros District, ...

, Linlín, Artesamayo, Choropampa, Madgalena,

Cortegana Cortegana is a town and municipality located in the province of Huelva, Spain. According to the 2005 census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. T ...

, Chipche, Mireles, Chusgón,

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

, Casga, Mamara,

Mayas The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical reg ...

, Actuy, Rupac, Yanamayo, Puchca, Contan, Vizcarra , custom_label = , custom_data = , extra = The Marañón River ( es, Río Marañón, ) is the principal or mainstem source of the Amazon River, arising about 160 km to the northeast of

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, and flowing through a deeply eroded Andean valley in a northwesterly direction, along the eastern base of the

Cordillera A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly u ...

of the

, as far as 5° 36′ southern latitude; from where it makes a great bend to the northeast, and cuts through the jungle Andes, until at the

Pongo de Manseriche The Pongo de Manseriche is a gorge in northwest Peru. The Marañón River runs through this gorge (and water gap) before it reaches the Amazon Basin. The Pongo ('gate' in Quechua) de Manseriche is 3 miles (4.8 km) long, located at 4° 27� ...

it flows into the flat

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

. Although historically, the term "Marañon River" often was applied to the river all the way to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, nowadays the Marañon River is generally thought to end at the confluence with the

Ucayali River The Ucayali River ( es, Río Ucayali, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of ...

, after which most cartographers label the ensuing waterway the

Geography

The Marañón River is Peru’s second-longest river, according to a 2005 statistical publication by the

Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática The Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI) ("National Institute of Statistics and Informatics") is a semi-autonomous Peruvian government agency which coordinates, compiles, and evaluates statistical information for the country ...

Source of the Amazon

The Marañon River was considered the

source of the Amazon River The main source of the largest river in the world has been a subject of exploring and speculations for centuries and continues to cause arguments even today. Determining the origin of the Amazon River has evoked broad debates among scholars, explo ...

starting with the 1707 map published by Padre

Samuel Fritz Samuel Fritz SJ (9 April 1654 – 20 March 1725, 1728 or 1730) was a Czech Jesuit missionary, noted for his exploration of the Amazon River and its basin. He spent most of his life preaching to Indigenous communities in the western Amazon r ...

, who indicated the great river “has its source on the southern shore of a lake that is called Lauriocha, near

Huánuco Huánuco (; qu, Wanuku) is a city in central Peru. It had a population of 196,627 as of 2017 and in 2015 it had a population of 175,068. It is the capital of the Huánuco Region and the Huánuco District. It is the seat of the diocese of Huán ...

." Fritz believed that the Marañón contributed the most water of all the Amazon's tributaries, making it the most important headstream. For most of the 18th–19th centuries and into the 20th century, the Marañon River was generally considered the source of the Amazon. Later explorations have proposed two headwaters rivers of the Marañon in the high

as sources of the Amazon: the Lauricocha and Nupe Rivers. The Lauricocha and Nupe unite near the village of Rondos to form from their confluence downstream the river that is called the Marañon. Although the Apurimac and Mantaro rivers also have claims to being the source of the Amazon, the Marañon River continues to claim the title of the "mainstem source" or "hydrological source" of the Amazon due to its contribution of the highest annual discharge rates.

Description

The initial section of the Marañon contains a plethora of ''pongos'', which are gorges in the jungle areas often with difficult rapids. The

is the final'' pongo'' on the Marañon located just before the river enters the flat Amazon basin. It is long and located between the confluence with the Rio Santiago and the village of Borja. According to Captain Carbajal, who attempted ascent through the Pongo de Manseriche in the little steamer ''Napo'', in 1868, it is a vast rent in the Andes about 600 m (2000 ft) deep, narrowing in places to a width of only 30 m (100 ft), the precipices "seeming to close in at the top." Through this canyon, the Marañón leaps along, at times, at the rate of 20 km/h (12 mi/h). The ''pongo'' is known for wrecking many ships and many drownings. Downstream of the Pongo de Manseriche, the river often has islands, and usually nothing is visible from its low banks, but an immense

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

-covered plain known as the ''selva baja'' (low jungle) or

vian Amazonia. It is home to

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

such as the

Urarina The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin ( Loreto) who inhabit the valleys of the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira ...

of the

Chambira Basin The Chambira River is a major tributary of the Marañón River, and has been the traditional territory of the Urarina peoples for at least the past 350 years, if not longer. Located in the Amazon jungle of Peru, otherwise known as the Selva, the Ch ...

br>
the

Candoshi Candoshi-Shapra (also known as Candoshi, Candoxi, Kandoshi, and Murato) is an indigenous American language isolate, spoken by several thousand people in western South America along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona river valleys. Ther ...

, and the

Cocama-Cocamilla Cocama (Kokáma) is a language spoken by thousands of people in western South America. It is spoken along the banks of the Northeastern lower Ucayali, lower Marañón, and Huallaga rivers and in neighboring areas of Brazil and an isolated area ...

peoples. A 552-km (343-mi) section of the Marañon River between Puente Copuma (Puchka confluence) and Corral Quemado is a class IV raftable river that is similar in many ways to the Grand Canyon of the United States, and has been labeled the "Grand Canyon of the Amazon". Most of this section of the river is in a canyon that is up to 3000 m deep on both sides – over twice the depth of the Colorado's Grand Canyon. It is in dry, desert-like terrain, much of which receives only 250–350 mm/rain per year (10–14 in/yr) with parts such as from Balsas to Jaén known as the hottest ''infierno'' area of Peru. The Marañon Grand Canyon section flows by the village of Calemar, where Peruvian writer

Ciro Alegría Ciro Alegría Bazán (November 4, 1909 – February 17, 1967) was a Peruvian journalist, politician, and novelist. Biography Born in Huamachuco District, he exposed the problems of the Native Peruvians while learning about their way of life. ...

based one of his most important novels, ''La serpiente de oro'' (1935).

Historical journeys

La Condamine, 1743

One of the first popular descents of the Marañon River occurred in 1743, when Frenchman

Charles Marie de La Condamine Charles Marie de La Condamine (28 January 1701 – 4 February 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in territory which is now Ecuador, measuring the length of a degree of latitude at the equator and pre ...

journeyed from the Chinchipe confluence all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. La Condamine did not descend the initial section of the Marañon by boat due to the ''pongos''. From where he began his boating descent at the Chiriaco confluence, La Condamine still had to confront several ''pongos'', including the Pongo de Huaracayo (or Guaracayo) and the Pongo de Manseriche.

The Grand Canyon of the Amazon

The upper Marañon River has seen a number of descents. An attempt to paddle the river was made by Herbert Rittlinger in 1936.

Sebastian Snow Sebastian Edward Farquharson Snow, (21 January 1929 – 20 April 2001), born in Midhurst, Sussex, was an eccentric English adventurer who became the first person to travel the length of the Amazon River. Travels Educated at Eton College, Et ...

was an adventurer who journeyed down most of the river by trekking to

Chiriaco River The Chiriaco (from Quechua Chiri Yaku, ''chiri'' cold, ''yaku'' water, "cold water") is a river in Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great ...

starting at the source near Lake Niñacocha. In 1976 and/or 1977, Laszlo Berty descended the section from Chagual to the jungle in raft. In 1977, a group composed of Tom Fisher, Steve Gaskill, Ellen Toll, and John Wasson spent over a month descending the river from Rondos to Nazareth with kayaks and a raft. In 2004, Tim Biggs and companions kayaked the entire river from the Nupe River to Iquitos. In 2012, Rocky Contos descended the entire river with various companions along the way.

Hydroelectric dams

The Marañon River may supply 20 hydroelectric megadams planned in the Andes, and most of the power is thought to be destined for export to Brazil, Chile, or Ecuador. Dam survey crews have drafted construction blueprints, and the environmental impact statements have been available since November 2009 for the Veracruz dam, and since November 2011, the Chadin2 dam. A 2011 law stated "national demand" for the hydroelectric energy, while in 2013, Peruvian President

Ollanta Humala Lieutenant colonel Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso (; born 27 June 1962) is a Peruvian politician and former military officer who served as President of Peru from 2011 to 2016. Originally a socialist and left-wing nationalist, he is considered ...

explicitly made a connection with mining; the energy is to supply mines in the

Cajamarca Region Cajamarca (; qu, Kashamarka; ay, Qajamarka) is a department and region in Peru. The capital is the city of Cajamarca. It is located in the north part of the country and shares a border with Ecuador. The city has an elevation of above sea le ...

, La Libertad,

Ancash Region Ancash ( qu, Anqash; es, Áncash ) is a department and region in northern Peru. It is bordered by the departments of La Libertad on the north, Huánuco and Pasco on the east, Lima on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital i ...

, and

Piura Region Piura () is a coastal department and region in northwestern Peru. The region's capital is Piura and its largest port cities, Paita and Talara, are also among the most important in Peru. The area is known for its tropical and dry beaches. It is ...

. Construction of the 406 MW dam in Chaglla District started in 2012.

Concerns

Opposition arose because the dams are expected to disrupt the major source of the Amazon, alter normal silt deposition into the lower river, damage habitat and migration patterns for fish and other aquatic life, displace thousands of residents along the river, and damage a national treasure "at least as nice as the Grand Canyon in the USA". Residents have launched efforts to halt the dams along the river with conservation groups such as SierraRios and

International Rivers International Rivers is a non-profit, non-governmental, environmental, and human rights organization. Founded in 1985 by social and environmental activists, International Rivers works with policy and financial analysts, scientists, journalists, ...

. Potential ecological impacts of 151 new dams greater than 2 MW on five of the six major Andean tributaries of the Amazon over the next 20 years are estimated to be high, including the first major break in connectivity between Andean headwaters and lowland Amazon and deforestation due to infrastructure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maranon River Rivers of Peru Tributaries of the Amazon River Rivers Upper Amazon