Expedition to the Amazon jungle (Ecuador). Is it possible to find city Z using modern technology
Europeans learned about the lost city of El Dorado from the Indians almost immediately after they arrived in the New World. Conquistador Francisco de Orellano was the first to go in search of this legendary place. Later, many other lovers of Indian treasures searched for Eldorado. However, the city has not revealed its secret to anyone until now.
The search for the ancient city by the conquistadors thus ended in failure. However, not only gold hunters, but also scientists became interested in the ancient legend. At the same time, the most famous representative scientific world Surveyor Percy Fawcett became the man who devoted his life to the search for Eldorado. Deliberately not using the word “Eldorado,” which by that time had already discredited itself, the English colonel called the mysterious Indian city “City Z.”
Percy Fawcett was born, who later became the prototype of the widely known fictional character Indiana Jones, in 1867. The adventures of this explorer in the last century have literally become a legend. Colonel Fawcett ventured through the dangerous jungle with little more than a compass and map. The scientist also easily found a common language with tribes who had never seen a white man before. Fawcett's life was subsequently described in many books, and his adventures were immortalized in Hollywood films.
Where it all started
The Amazon wilderness in Colonel Fawcett's time was one of the last areas on the planet virtually unexplored by man. These were huge regions, the area of which can be compared with the territory of the modern United States.
In 1906 Percy Fawcett was sent to South America Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain in order to survey one of the sections of the border between Brazil and Bolivia. Carrying out this task, the scientist spent about 18 months in the jungle in the Mato Grosso region. It is believed that it was at this time that the colonel became obsessed with the idea of searching for lost civilizations in the Amazon region.
Mysterious city
Colonel Fawcett, of course, knew the legends of the conquistadors about the rich Eldorado. Traveling through the jungles of the New World, the researcher heard, for example, about a secret city in the Chilean Andes, buried in the forest, the roofs of which were “made of gold” and the streets were “paved with silver.”
However, Fawcett's belief in the existence of the city of Z was based not only on legends. Among other things, this researcher even formulated his own “Z” theory, which to some extent claims to be scientific.
The scientist was partly convinced of the existence of the ancient city by the discovery in 1911 of the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru in the Andes. In 1920, the researcher came across an ancient manuscript called “Manuscript 512”. This document was kept in the National Library of Rio de Janeiro and was written by one of the Portuguese travelers in 1753.
In the manuscript, the author described a “silver” city that he found in the Amazon forests, in the Mato Grosso region. In the Indian settlement discovered by the traveler, the houses were supposedly multi-story, and the streets were much wider than even in large European cities. The ancient researcher also reported that letters similar to Greek were engraved on the facades of buildings in the city he found. In addition, on the river located near the settlement, he allegedly saw two white Indians in a canoe.
First two expeditions
For the first time, Colonel Fawcett went in search of the lost city of Z in the Amazon forests located in Brazil in 1921. Unfortunately, this first expedition failed. The constant danger of attack by wild animals, tropical diseases and fear of local tribes forced the explorers to return home.
However, being a purposeful man, Colonel Fawcett did not despair and in the same year he again went in search of the city of Z, leaving the Brazilian Bai, this time alone. This second expedition also did not bring any results to the researcher.
The Disappearance of Percy Fawcett
The third and last expedition of the English scientist ended in tragedy. This time, Percy Fawcett invited his 21-year-old son and a friend to search for City Z. The group that moved into the jungle in April 1925 was never seen again. Colonel Fawcett himself, his son and a friend, family acquaintance Raleigh Rimell and two Brazilian workers disappeared without a trace.
Did the colonel remain in city Z?
Most likely, Fossett and his group, of course, simply died in the jungle. However, some mystery lovers believe that the colonel and his comrades actually found Eldorado and simply decided not to return home. Such myths are based entirely on real fact. The fact is that in his last letter to his wife, Colonel Fawcett said that he was in the jungle in a place whose coordinates looked like this: 11°43′S 54°35′W. However, at the same time, news came from the researcher to the North American Newspaper Alliance. Fawcett informed scientists that it is currently located at a location with coordinates 13°43′S 54°35′W.
Some researchers, therefore, believe that the famous traveler deliberately introduced confusion into his messages. Moreover, he did this so that search expeditions would never find him in the future.
However, there is also very real evidence of the fate that befell Colonel Fawcett’s group in the jungle. Representatives of the Kalapalo tribe in 2005 told archaeologist David Grann the story of the death of his expedition. Representatives of this nation allegedly warned the colonel that he and his comrades were in very dangerous territory, since a bloodthirsty tribe lived nearby that killed strangers.
Five days after meeting with the Kalapalo researchers, they were unable to find the aliens in their camp. From this, the Indians concluded that Fawcett and his group were finally found and killed by their warlike neighbors.
Is it possible to find city Z using modern technology?
The most famous of those found in Lately ancient Indian cities that claim the “title” of city Z is Kuhikugu. This ancient settlement was recently discovered in Brazil near the site of the disappearance of Colonel Fawcett's expedition.
At the moment, there is, unfortunately, very little information about this city on the Internet. And of course, it is not yet clear whether this abandoned settlement can be the legendary Eldorado. Of course, many other forgotten Indian cities and villages can lay claim to the title of the lost city of Z.
It is also quite possible that scientists will soon discover new, previously unexplored cities, still hidden in the jungle. The fact is that recently specialists have developed several innovative technologies, allowing you to search for ancient settlements with greater efficiency than before.
For example, modern laser scanners, which are also used by archaeologists, are capable of taking images of an area with vegetation filtered. By simultaneously using such means as geomagnetic surveying and electrical prospecting, scientists are able to accurately determine the location of hidden objects.
A group of archaeologists led by Marti Pärsinen from the University of Helsinki, working in the Brazilian state of Acre, announced the discovery of an unknown civilization. It's not every day you hear something like this - a whole new civilization! However, in the general context of archaeological research in the Amazon, this news does not sound as sensational as it might seem.
Few shards
Pärsinen's team excavated the famous geoglyphs - geometric patterns on the ground formed by ditches and trenches. These patterns are so huge that they can only be seen from the air. Among the finds of archaeologists are many clay shards. Since these shards are the only artifacts left to us from ancient culture Amazonia (there is no stone there), the civilizations there have to be classified according to the types of ceramics. The shards found by Pärsinen are unlike any previously found, and this is quite enough to declare the discovery of an unknown civilization.
The thing is that such discoveries in the Amazon are not so rare. The entire history of Amazonian civilizations is a history of struggle with the forest. It took a person incredible efforts to clear an area in the forest and adapt it to his needs, but as soon as people left this area, the forest swallowed it up in a matter of years. This is exactly what happened with geoglyphs. They were fenced areas (either fortifications, or ritual complexes), they were created approximately from the 1st to the 13th centuries AD. When people left them (some after the arrival of Europeans, some even before), the areas very quickly became overgrown with forest.
Geoglyphs were discovered only in the 1970s, when the Amazon jungle began to be cut down in industrial scale, so that whole hectares of land appeared from under the cover of the forest and gigantic geometric patterns caught the eyes of people who flew over these spaces on airplanes. Over the past thirty-odd years, hundreds of geoglyphs have been found throughout the Amazon basin, especially in its western part (including in the state of Acre), and their total number is believed to be in the thousands. One can only guess how many unknown types of ceramics are hidden in the forest.
The deforestation of the Amazon continues: new pastures are increasingly appearing on the site of deforestation in the state of Acre, Brazil is strengthening and strengthening its status as one of the largest beef producers in the world, and environmentalists continue to criticize the authorities and businessmen for the destruction of the unique Amazonian ecosystem. Discovery of traces of ancient civilizations - by-effect This process, and it gave rise to unexpected consequences for everyone: the theory that the Amazon forests are not at all as wild and untouched as they are commonly thought of.
Nomads
The Amazonian soil is infertile: while the forest grows on it, it fertilizes itself, so to speak, but as soon as the forest is cleared, the rain literally washes humus and minerals out of the soil in just a couple of years, and nothing stops growing on it. But if you leave the area, the forest absorbs it, and after a few years you can work there again for a couple of years agriculture. Early European descriptions indicate that in the 17th-18th centuries, Amazonian Indians were engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture: a plot of forest is cut down and set on fire, then an agricultural community lives on it for several years, and when the soil is depleted, the community moves to another plot, then to a third, and so on. Further. The next generation can cut down and set fire to the first plot again - the forest there has already restored the soil.
This is essentially a nomadic civilization. It leaves almost no traces for archaeologists to delve into. The fact that the ancient Amazonian Indians built something that has survived to this day in the form of geoglyphs, and intensively used clay vessels, is great luck. Geoglyphs are most likely not traces of permanent settlements: there are no human remains there, and the first sign of settlement is a cemetery.
"Black Earth"
However, studies of the last two decades indicate that in ancient times the civilized life of the Amazon was not limited to these semi-nomadic tribes. Throughout the basin of the great river, relatively small (on average 20 hectares) areas of extremely fertile soil, the so-called “black earth” (in Portuguese - terra preta), have been discovered in huge quantities. Ancient ceramics are invariably found in these areas - that is, people once lived here.
“Black Earth” is an amazing phenomenon. This is exactly the kind of soil about which they say: stick a stick in it and it will bloom. “Black Earth” is extremely rich in ash, humus, nitrogen, phosphorus and other minerals; it is teeming with microlife. The thickness of this extremely fertile layer of earth reaches two meters, it is not washed away by rain and is capable of fairly rapid regeneration (up to a centimeter per year).
The most striking thing is that the “black earth” is not a natural phenomenon at all. It was created by people. For centuries, millennia, they fertilized the soil, did not allow forests to grow on it - and grew enviable crops that could feed a very impressive population - up to a million people in the entire Amazon basin.
Ancient Amazonia
In 1542, fifty Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco de Orellana, sailed a brigantine along the entire course of the Amazon. The chaplain of the detachment, Dominican monk Gaspar de Carvajal, left a colorful description of this expedition, in which he stated that at every step the travelers came across native settlements and even cities, roads and other attributes of a highly developed and populous civilization. Almost no one believed the tales of de Orellana and brother Gaspar: apparently, they exaggerated the wealth of the country in order to show off and also to get money for a new expedition.
Less than half a century later, the Amazon was already almost deserted: the Spaniards exterminated many Indians or drove them into slavery, and for most of them it was fatal to encounter previously unknown diseases like smallpox, to which they, unlike Europeans, had no immunity.
The discovery of geoglyphs, elucidation of the origin of the “black earth” and other archaeological discoveries of the second half of the twentieth century rehabilitated de Orellana and brother Gaspar, at least partially. The great woman and archaeologist Betty Meggers found burials in magnificent clay urns in the lower Amazon, completing the picture of the complex culture that flourished in the Amazon in the first fifteen hundred years of our era.
This culture presumably consisted of several urban centers connected by roads, and many smaller settlements. Each such settlement, as a rule, was a ring of wooden houses, forming a spacious area, in the center of which stood a community house - this form of villages has been preserved to this day among Indian tribes in the Amazon basin, who by some miracle have survived to this day. And where we now see geoglyphs, there were apparently some kind of ritual sites.
This culture, as has already been said, left relatively few archaeological traces - enough to judge its scope, but not enough to judge its character. The finds of Pärsinen’s group (they were not made in the “black land” and are also interesting for this reason) among the geoglyphs of the state of Acre are valuable in that they complement our knowledge of the scale of the ancient civilization, although they do not report anything new about the purpose of the geoglyphs.
There is, however, one particularly bold interpretation of the latest discoveries in the Amazon. According to it, the most important trace left by ancient civilization is... the Amazonian jungle itself. Many centuries of slash-and-burn agriculture, artificial selection fruit trees, animals and even fish, the creation of the “black earth” - all this made the most famous forest of the planet a creation of human hands almost to the same extent as wildlife. So the Amazon can be called not only a forest, but also a garden. True, for the last five hundred years this garden has been desolate. I must admit, it is very picturesque.
The story of the missing expedition began in 2007, when a group of scientists went to remote places in the Amazon.
The researchers set out to visit the area between the Juruena and Arinus rivers, where they wanted to study the life of Indian tribes. But after some time, radio contact with the researchers is interrupted, and then it becomes clear that the group is in distress. Search teams are sent to search for the missing scientists. As a result Searches manage to find J. Ribero, an employee of the Brazilian Institute of History and Ethnography. His condition was terrible, severe exhaustion, psychological shock, crippled right hand
, where four fingers were missing.
The corpse of the Indian guide who accompanied the expedition was also discovered. The conductor's body was terribly mutilated, his arms were severed, his left leg was missing. Traces of the remaining members of the expedition could not be found; the members of the expedition disappeared literally without a trace. Dr. Jose Ribero , giving an interview in one of the Brazilian publications, decides to open terrible secret
missing expedition.
Research scientists, led by guides making their way through the Amazon jungle, meet on their way a group of white-skinned people who, however, do not speak the local dialect. By external signs , those encountered can be attributed to the European race, and besides, they speak well English language
and Portuguese. Together they go to the camp of strangers, hidden in the jungle, while the travelers are treated somewhat dismissively. It is estimated that 150-200 Aboriginal people live in the camp, living in two long houses-barracks made of a material reminiscent of plastic, the majority of the inhabitants of the camp are men. Talking among themselves, the members of the expedition were surprised that only young residents lived in the camp, almost all of them were the same height, and had an external similarity to each other.
Relationships tensions between the natives and the members of the expedition became increasingly tense, and another feature of the local residents was noted. Asking the expeditioners who they were, where they came from, and what the goals of the trip were, they spoke very little to each other. Later it was understood that the aborigines communicate with each other telepathically. But some of them, as Ribero managed to notice, had cell phones.
Between themselves, the travelers nicknamed the people in the camp “scouts.” As the members of the expedition became acquainted with the scout camp, bewilderment grew more and more. In one of the camp buildings, films were being broadcast, in another room the natives were studying some kind of microcircuits. There were computers in the premises where the “scouts” worked. Meanwhile, the attitude towards the new arrival became more and more dismissive.
Impressed and the habits of the “scouts” who caught beetles and other insects, immediately eating them; some of them caught a snake and began to eat it immediately, tearing it with their teeth. And what’s interesting is that they literally felt where the insects were. After some time, people appeared dressed in dark overalls, with hoods over their heads, and of small stature. When they appeared, all the “scouts” immediately calmed down, becoming quiet and submissive, while the “elders” did not utter a word.
Elder They left the camp somewhere, and after their departure something began that Ribero has not been able to forget for several years. The death of his comrades happened before his eyes. With the advent of twilight, the natives completely lost control of themselves. Several “scouts” grabbed two women from the expedition and dragged them into the building, Ribero and other men tried to stop the impending violence.
But it was not there, they couldn’t even get close to the building, apparently they were stopped on a telepathic level, forbidden to approach the building. As Dr. Ribero says, the residents of the camp are excellent at hypnosis, with the help of which the expedition members were kept in place, not allowed to escape, although the camp was not guarded in any way.
At first, the inhabitants of the camp groped the members of the expedition, then they begin to bite people, but the people do not resist. Meanwhile, the scouts begin a cannibal feast, already tearing people apart and tearing flesh from each other. It was creepy to see how people who were eaten alive, starting with their arms and legs, did not scream in pain. On the contrary, they smiled blissfully, clearly experiencing a feeling of euphoria.
The same happened by Dr. Ribero himself, he was captured by several women from the camp, and forcibly had sexual intercourse with him. At the same time, the doctor’s fingers began to be bitten off, but strangely, he did not experience any pain at all. Moreover, he experienced extraordinary pleasure, and he extended his second finger to the cannibals voluntarily. Then the senior camps appeared again, but by this time the doctor had lost four fingers.
With the advent elders, the cannibalism was instantly stopped, but only the doctor and one of the Indian guides survived. Dr. Ribero, who lost consciousness, does not remember what happened next. He woke up in another place in the jungle, where a search party found him in terrible condition. The Doctor did not remember anything about the place where they discovered the cannibal camp. And he agreed that he would be put into a state of regressive hypnosis, but it was in vain, his memory of the events had been thoroughly erased by someone.
What did the expedition encounter in the Amazon jungle?
This They explain the version that on Earth, in places hidden from many eyes, aliens set up their laboratory bases. Where they are engaged in various kinds of experiments to bring out people of a new generation. It is in these camps that aliens conduct experiments with their genetic material and humans. Sometimes, as a result of experiments, terrible monsters appear.
Based on according to the stories of eyewitnesses who visited alien laboratories or their bases, they have pronounced paranormal abilities. Often, eyewitnesses who were abducted and then returned recall military personnel and other people who are clearly collaborating with representatives of aliens. Which, independently, or by prior order, deliver people to laboratories for research.
In older, or the commanders mentioned by Dr. Ribero, many recognize as “gray aliens” who will subsequently lead the administration of the earthly government. Below in the hierarchy there will be hybrids, then mutants, then there are human contactees with implanted extraterrestrial implants.
Leftovers humanity will occupy the lowest stage of evolution, a newly organized community. Located in special areas of the reservation, people will provide material for genetic research. Now hybrids are achieving greater resemblance to humans, and the replacement procedure is gradually underway. When instead of people, alien hybrids begin to work in key management positions.
So Thus, the process of replacing people with hybrids occurs smoothly, and unnoticed by most of the inhabitants of the Earth. When the replacement stage is completed, the remnants of humanity will be presented with a fait accompli, but the seizure of the Earth and the transformation of people into slaves will no longer be avoidable.
Brazilian expedition, probably accidentally came across one of the adaptation camps where mutant hybrids were kept. Where, under the leadership of “gray aliens,” they underwent a process of adaptation to earthly conditions.
As noted online publication, after the publication of the interview, contact with Dr. Ribero is lost. His location cannot be determined, he literally disappears. According to journalists, this was not without influence. Representatives of which, the doctors declared, were disingenuous and called him mentally inadequate, unable to recover from the results of the expedition. Calling everything he described fiction and lies.
It is unknown how the issue with hybrids actually stands. But the takeover of the Earth is already underway, alien hybrids live among us, we don’t have long to wait , Day X is approaching…….
The Amazon River basin is one of the rare corners of the planet untouched by civilization. Lumberjacks have not yet reached the virgin rainforests of the Amazon. The Indian tribes living here do not know what metal and plastic are, and still make tools from stone. And wild animals, including tapirs, jaguars, and anacondas, live in their natural environment. The first part of the expedition passes through the wild jungle of the Amazon.
Composition of the group: 4-10 people
Price*: 2300$
Club card discount - 10%!
* Payment is made in rubles at the dollar exchange rate at the time of purchase of the tour.
Route Our expedition through the jungle is designed for 10 days, during which we plan to cover a distance of 200 kilometers on foot and by canoe. Our path passes through the territory national park Pacaya Samiria, located between two tributaries of the Amazon - the Ucayali and Marañon. During our trip we will visit several Indian settlements, where we can see how at the beginning of the 21st century people live without any signs of civilization.
Using homemade fishing rods we will catch piranhas, known among the local population as natural “Viagra”. If you're lucky, we'll see a jaguar and one of the most cautious inhabitants of the tropical forest - the tapir. We will hunt caimans with our bare hands and, if luck is on our side, we will not miss the opportunity to get to know one of the longest snakes on Earth - the anaconda.
Trip program
1st day
Arrival in Lima - one of the most beautiful Latin American capitals. After checking into the hotel, we go on a tour of the historical quarters of the old city, built during Spanish colonial rule. The center of the Peruvian capital is included in the list world heritage UNESCO. After lunch free time- the opportunity to visit the Miraflores area and stroll along the Pacific Ocean.
2nd day
Flight to Iquitos, a city to which no road leads. It can only be reached by air or water. A city with paved roads but almost no cars. Instead, thousands of motorcycles rush back and forth like ants, supplemented by rare wooden buses.
We check into a hotel and begin to adapt to the heat in the thirties and almost one hundred percent humidity.
3rd day
In the morning we go to the port. We will spend the whole day on the river. By speedboat we head upstream towards the village of Brittany.
Overboard we will see only yellow muddy water (which is explained by the high content of clay washed away from the mountains in the upper reaches) and river dolphins, every now and then emerging next to the ship.
Once every 4-5 hours we will arrive at a small Indian village, the houses of which are built from palm branches.
Their residents will offer passengers all sorts of food - baked yucca, fried fish freshly caught in the Amazon, bananas.
4th day
In the morning we pack up our camp, load our things into the canoe and cross the Amazon, which at this point is just under one kilometer wide. On the other side begins the Pacaya-Samiria National Park. We begin to go deeper into the park.
The water overboard is no longer dirty yellow, but transparent, black. Before the evening, which we will spend at the rangers' base, we will cross several swamps dotted with huge Victoria Reina water lilies, more than a meter in diameter. Flocks of monkeys will scamper through the trees, accompanying our small flotilla. Hundreds of dozens of herons will circle over the river various types, every now and then macaws will fly from tree to tree.
5th day
In a day we will reach the next ranger base, the last one on our way deep into the wild jungle. Here, hanging hammocks and mosquito nets, we can rest a little, go fishing, and catch fish for dinner. Most Our catch will consist of piranhas, which will bite on any piece of meat or other fish.
In the afternoon we will go on our first hiking excursion into the primary forest, which has never been touched by a woodcutter’s axe. Here we will begin to get used to the forest, its sounds and atmosphere.
6th day
There is only forest and water ahead. We are heading north. We go from the Ucayali River to the Marañon River, which at their confluence form the deepest river on the planet - the Amazon. We spend most of the trip on the water.
But the water here is not a river, it is swamps covered with numerous floating islands of grass, algae and driftwood. Having encountered one of these natural forts, we used a machete to cut a channel through it for our canoes. We will set up camp on the shore, which is dry enough to make a fire.
7th day
During our journey through the jungle, where we combine rafting through overgrown rivers and swamps with landing on dry islands, we will learn how to find clean drinking water without making too much effort.
We will need to learn to recognize water-bearing vines and distinguish them from their poisonous relatives. After lunch we will learn to build a shelter from scrap materials, using as the main building material palm leaves.
8th day
Since the Amazon basin is a world that combines land and water, the boundary between which changes almost every day, then, of course, such a world is a refuge for a mass of reptiles, freshwater, and reptiles. Caimans, snakes, among which there will be multi-meter anacondas and inconspicuous, but very Poisonous snakes, living in the forest floor, and tree snakes - all this diversity will appear before us.
9th day
We will spend the day on the shore of a forest lake, blown by a fresh breeze. Relaxation, fishing and a fire await us. At night we will go in search of animals that are almost impossible to meet during the day. These include caimans with anacondas, which can be found on the water surface by the orange reflection of their eyes in the beam of flashlights; and tapirs moving along the same paths, trampled over the years.
10th day
We go out to an Indian village on the banks of the Marañon River. Now the meager, rustic life of its inhabitants does not seem to us something special, but National dishes fried bananas, platanos, fish and yucca are as familiar to us as they are to them. From here we set off on a fast boat to the town of Nauta. Then we follow the asphalt road back to Iquitos.
What you have no idea about! Did you know that a significant portion of the world's drinking water is located in the Amazon? This river is the largest in the world in terms of basin area and full flow.
Did you know that the Amazon rainforest is home to the vast majority of the millions of different species of plants and animals that live on our planet? The Amazon is, without exaggeration, the global genetic fund of the Earth!
The Amazon is so huge that tribes still live deep in the jungle and have not made contact with civilization. And this is just a small part of all those unimaginable and amazing things that make the Amazon one of the most unique places on the planet!
The history of the Amazon is no less amazing! There are few things in the world as interesting and intriguing to scientists as the Amazon rainforest. But we will not reveal all our cards at once - everything has its time. Read on, because before you - 25 amazing facts about the Amazon, which you will be interested to know!
24. Some species of ants living in the Amazon are known for raiding neighboring colonies and taking other ants as slaves.
23. Slovenian ultra-distance swimmer Martin Strel is the first person to swim across the Amazon, swimming 80 kilometers every day. It took him a little over two months.
22. Every year for three weeks full moon causes a tidal wave that moves upstream of the Amazon every night. Some surfers manage to ride a wave for more than 10 kilometers.
21. Under the Amazon, at a depth of about 4 kilometers, another river named Hamza flows: it is much wider and just as long.
19. Although in the past numerous expeditions tried to find the ancient cities of the Amazon, which were rumored to be covered with gold, over time, scientists began to doubt that civilization could flourish in such harsh conditions and on such barren soil.
18. Scientists have found evidence of anthropogenic Terra Preta soil covering vast areas of the Amazon. They believe that the inhabitants of ancient civilizations covered the earth with this artificial, rich nutrients soil, which made it possible to build cities and engage in agriculture.
17. 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke fell deep into the Amazon jungle when the plane she was traveling in crashed. All 91 passengers died, and the girl made her way through the jungle for a week and a half before she managed to reach people.
16. The Amazon is thought to be home to 2.5 million species of insects, and more than half of them are thought to live under leaf canopy.
15. In the Amazon basin there live tribes that have not yet made contact with civilization and some scientists are against contacting them.
14. There is a theory that the Amazon is actually a giant orchard, left over from a civilization that flourished in this area about 3,000 years ago.
13. From the Amazon River, such a large volume of fresh water flows into the Atlantic that it desalinates the salty waters of the ocean for almost 160 kilometers. This vast area is called the Fresh Sea.
12. The mouth of the Amazon River is so wide that its waters, flowing into Atlantic Ocean wash the shores of the island of Marajo. Cool, right? The size of this island is approximately equal to the territory of Switzerland.
11. The Amazon once flowed into the Pacific Ocean, but then changed its direction in the opposite direction.
10. In the forests of the Amazon, a microscopic fungus (Pestalotiopsis microspora) was discovered, which, surprisingly, can live by feeding exclusively on plastic, more precisely, polyurethane. Moreover, he can do this even in the absence of oxygen.
9. In terms of water flow, the Amazon River is larger than the next 8 largest rivers on the planet combined.
7. In the waters of the Amazon lives a fish called arapaima weighing about 136 kilograms. It is covered with durable textured scales, the multilayer compositional structure of which allows it to survive surrounded by piranhas.
6. Scientists have found that every year, due to dust storms in the Bodélé Depression, located in the Sahara Desert, 40 tons of dust are transferred across the Atlantic to the Amazon basin every year.
