The Oyapock or Oiapoque (; ; ) is a long river in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

that forms most of the border between the French overseas department of

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

and the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Amapá.

Course

The Oyapock runs through the

Guianan moist forests The Guianan moist forests (NT0125) is an ecoregion in the east of Venezuela, north of Brazil and the Guyanas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana). It is in the Amazon biome. The climate is hot and humid, with two rainy seasons each year. As of 1996 ...

ecoregion. It rises in the Tumuk Humak () mountain range and flows into 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 ...

, where its

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

forms a large bay bordering on Cape Orange. The mouth of the Oyapock is the northern ''end'' of Brazil's coastline, as it is where the border between Brazil and French Guiana meets the ocean, but nearby Cape Orange, which separates the Bay of Oyapock from the Atlantic Ocean, is the northernmost ''point'' of the Brazilian coast. In Brazil, both the cape and the mouth of the Oyapock are often mistaken for the whole country's northernmost point (rather than just of its coastline), and in the past this information could even be found in geography schoolbooks. Yet the true northernmost point in Brazil is actually far inland, on Monte Caburaí, in the state of Roraima, hundreds of kilometers from the Oyapock and almost a full degree more to the north.

History

Vicente Yáñez Pinzón Vicente Yáñez Pinzón () (c. 1462 – after 1514) was a Spanish navigator and explorer, the youngest of the Pinzón brothers. Along with his older brother, Martín Alonso Pinzón (''c.'' 1441 – ''c.'' 1493), who captained the '' Pinta'', h ...

was said to be the first European person to see the Oiapoque River in the first years of the 16th century. It has been rendered Japoc, Yapoc, Iapoco, Wiapoco, and even called the Vicente Pinzón River. Early European colonists referred to the river as the ''Wiapoco'', and it was the site of early settlements by Briton Robert Harcourt in 1608 and Dutchman

Jan van Ryen Jan van Ryen (floruit, fl. 1620s–1630s) was a 17th-century Dutch privateer, explorer, and colonist. He was granted a commission by the Dutch West Indies Company and active against the Spanish in the West Indies during the 1620s. He and Clau ...

in 1627. The name Oiapoque has been officially used from 1900, when a territorial dispute between Brazil and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

was resolved through Swiss diplomatic arbitration.

Settlements

In addition to the small towns of

Oiapoque Oiapoque () is a municipality in the north of the state of Amapá, Brazil. Its population is 27,906 and its area is . Oiapoque is also a major river in the same state, forming the international border with French Guiana. The Oyapock River Bridge, ...

(Amapá) and

Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock Saint-Georges (sometimes unofficially called Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock) is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. It lies on the Oyapock River (which forms the border with Brazil), opp ...

(French Guiana), there are some small villages scattered along the bank of the Oyapock, such as

Camopi Camopi is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. Camopi is mainly inhabited by Amerindians of the Wayampi and Teko tribes. History In 1738, a Jesuit mission opened on the river ...

and

Clevelândia do Norte Clevelândia do Norte is a district of the Brazilian city of Oiapoque, Amapá, by the Oyapock River. History In 1922 an agricultural outpost called the Núcleo Colonial Cleveland was transformed into a political and criminal concentration camp d ...

Bridge

The

Oyapock River Bridge The Franco-Brazilian Binational Bridge spans the Oyapock River, linking the cities of Oiapoque in Amapá, Brazil and Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock in French Guiana, France. The bridge is cable-stayed bridge, cable-stayed, with two towers rising to a ...

has been built across the river to connect the Brazilian town of Oiapoque and the French town of Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock. It is the first international land border connection of French Guiana; although completed since 2011, as of February 2017, it had remained closed to traffic due to payment delays for construction and building crews, staffing issues within the Brazilian customs facilities, plus some minor disagreements between the Brazilian and French governments. The inauguration ceremony of the bridge finally took place on 18 March 2017. Starting from 08:00 on 20 March 2017, the bridge has been open to members of the public.

In popular culture

The widespread

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...

expression ''"do Oiapoque ao Chuí"'' ("from the Oyapock to the

Chuí Chuí () is a municipality located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It's the southernmost municipality of Brazil, located in the coordinates 33°41′0″S . A border town, it shares its name with sister city Chuy, Uruguay. The two tow ...

ivers) is used to refer to the whole nation, by mentioning the waterways that mark respectively the northern and southern extremities of the Brazilian coastline (as noted above, they are often mistaken for the entire country's northern and southern extreme points). Thus, the saying is used in the same way as Americans use the expression "from coast to coast."

References