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Satellite image of the mouth of the Amazon river

The basin of the Amazon, with the most important rivers. The Tocantins River is also part of that basin, even if it is not tributary to the Amazon

The Amazon River (also called Rio Amazonas in Portuguese and Spanish) is the largest river in the world by the amount or volume of water it carries. It flows through the tropical forests of South America, mainly in Brazil. Its headwaters are in the Andes Mountains in Peru, on the western edge of South America and flows eastward into the Atlantic Ocean near the equator.