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Urubamba River

The 452nd longest river in the world

725 km

The Urubamba River or Vilcamayo River (possibly from Quechua Willkamayu, for "sacred river") is a river in Peru. Upstream it is called Vilcanota River (possibly from Aymara Willkanuta, for "house of the sun"). Within the La Convención Province, the name changes to Urubamba. A partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River, the Urubamba rises in the Andes to the southeast of Cusco. It originates on the slopes of Cunurana in the Puno Region, Melgar Province, near the La Raya pass. It flows north-north-west for 724 km (450 mi) before coalescing with the Tambo River to form the Ucayali River. The Urubamba is divided into the Upper Urubamba and the Lower Urubamba, the dividing feature being the Pongo de Mainique, an infamous whitewater canyon, where the river narrows to a width of 45 metres (148 ft).

Flows through: Peru.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.

Other major rivers

  1. Amazon6,992 km
  2. Nile6,650 km
  3. Yangtze River6,300 km
  4. Bian River5,806 km
  5. Yellow River5,464 km
  6. Paraná River4,880 km
  7. River Congo4,700 km
  8. Mekong River4,350 km