Virtually all encyclopedias and specialized sources, including the popular Guinness World Records, indicate that the longest river on our planet is the Nile, which is credited with 6,695 km from its furthest current in Burundi to its mouth in the Mediterranean. But the leadership of the current of the pharaohs is in question from the other side of the Atlantic.
As Guinness itself acknowledges in the file dedicated to the world record for rivers, “the Amazon has several mouths, which widen towards the sea, so the exact point where the river ends is uncertain” “If you count the estuary of the Par (the furthest mouth), its length is approximately 6,750 km”, indicates the Guinness of records while maintaining the official honor for the Nile.
The metric doubts are not only found at the end of the channel, but its origin has also been questioned, established in 1971 in a snow-capped mountain in the Andes, in Peru, by Loren McIntyre, explorer, photographer and writer for National Geographic.
The attractive question about the world leader of rivers heads a scientific research and dissemination project led by the film producer Amazon Adventure and which intends to navigate the course of this South American river in 2024 (for six months) to specify its length and improve the knowledge of its biological richness.
Those responsible for the Rio Amazonas do Gelo ao Mar expedition, whose main objectives were presented in 2021, have now specified some of their challenges and work teams, highlighting that they intend to “defend the use of clean energy and campaign to reduce pollution of the water”. In addition to starting the campaign to disseminate audiovisual products that will facilitate the financing of the project: “All this experience will be duly documented in order to confirm whether the Amazon is the largest river in the world, both in territorial extension and in volume of water. The The project will result in various productions, such as a web series, a TV/streaming series, a documentary, a VR/AR educational project, an IMAX educational film for museums in 40 countries.” indicates Amazon Adventures on its website.
The promotion of the project is being well received internationally, as demonstrated by the space devoted to it on the front page of The Washington Post and the extensive reports published more recently by the BBC and AFP.
In three boats powered by solar and pedal energy, the expedition intends to set sail in April 2024 from the Peruvian Andes and travel almost 7,000 km in six months, passing through Colombia and Brazil, to the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean.
“The main objective is to map the river and document the biodiversity” for scientific purposes and to make a documentary, Brazilian explorer Yuri Sanada, coordinator of the project, told AFP.
Until now, only a dozen people are known to have ventured across the entire Amazon by kayak, but no one ever did so, says Sanada, who runs the audiovisual production company with his wife Vera Sanada.
The expedition coordinated by Sanada will travel these two slopes in parallel: one group, guided by Contos, will go rafting down the rapid waters of the Mantaro, while another will travel the shores of the Apurímac on horseback, with the French explorer Céline Cousteau, granddaughter of the legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
Where these two watercourses meet, Sanada and two other explorers will begin the longest leg of the trip in individual canoes made of bioresin and powered by solar-powered and pedal-powered motors designed specifically for the expedition.
By navigating the entire length of the river with a sensor, “we will be able to make a much more precise measurement,” explains Sanada.
The journey will be accompanied in some sections by a support boat, which will serve as a base for audiovisual and scientific tasks.
