Navigation of the Amazon River

What was discovered

Orellana descended the Amazon from the Andes to the Atlantic, the first recorded traverse of the world's largest river. Carvajal described dense riverside societies that modern archaeology (terra preta, geoglyphs) confirms.

Coordinates of the river mouth. First European record; the basin was densely populated by Indigenous peoples, whose later collapse from epidemics created the illusion of untouched jungle.

What it led to

• The myth of El Dorado and later expeditions
• The name 'Amazon', after the female warriors described
• Modern reassessment of Amazonia as a humanised landscape

Built on

• Gonzalo Pizarro's expedition to the Land of Cinnamon
• Conquest of Peru

Made possible

• Casiquiare canal (link between the Orinoco and Amazon basins)1800
• Mapping of the Amazon basin

Links