Many smaller rivers join the mighty Amazon as it nears the Atlantic
Ocean.
The Amazon River is so wide, the people living in this village can
hardly see the other side.
WHAT A RIVER!
The Amazon River is the biggest river in the world. It contains more
water than the Nile, the Mississippi, and the Yangtze rivers put
together. And next to the Nile, it is the longest river in the world.
The Amazon starts in Peru and slowly flows all the way across Brazil to
the Atlantic Ocean. Over most of this great distance, the river flows
through jungles where it rains for months at a time.
The surface of the Amazon looks as smooth as glass. But under the
surface, the water is full of snakes, eels, alligators, and a deadly
fish called the piranha. These tiny fish attack in bunches. They can eat
an animal as big as a horse in just a few minutes.
There’s a lot of life on the surface of the Amazon River, too. Some of
the people living along the river build their houses on wooden rafts
that are tied together with ropes. Then, when the river floods during
the rainy season, the whole village rises with the water.
