Xingu River

The Xingu River in northeast Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River.

There was little known about the Xingu River, until it was explored in 1887 by Karl von den Steinen from Cuiabá. Travelling east, convert|240|mi|km, he found the river Tamitatoaba, convert|180|ft|m wide, flowing from a lake convert|25|mi|km in diameter. He descended this torrential stream to the river Romero, convert|1300|ft|m wide, entering from the west, which receives the river Colisu. These three streams form the Xingu, or Parana-xingu, which, from convert|73|mi|km lower down, bounds along a succession of rapids for convert|400|mi|km. A little above the head of navigation, convert|105|mi|km from its mouth, the river makes a bend to the east to find its way across a rocky barrier. Here is the great cataract of Itamaraca, which rushes down an inclined plane for convert|3|mi|km and then gives a final leap, called the Fall of Itamaraca. Near its mouth, the Xingu expands into an immense lake, and its waters then mingle with those of the Amazon through a labyrinth of eanos (natural canals), winding in countless directions through a wooded archipelago. In the borders of this river, the Brazilian government created in the late 1950's the first Indian Park in Brazil. This park marks the first Indian territory recognized by Brazilian government. Nowadays fourteen tribes live there, like their ancestors, surviving using natural resources, extracting from the river most that they need as food and water. These people are in great danger, because these lands and the river are menaced by uncontrolled forest exploration, the cattle and the farming growing around the park and the construction of hydroeletric power plant in the Kuluene River, the most important ascedent of the Xingu River, despite the fight of these people against this.

In the Upper Xingu region was a highly self-organized pre-Columbian anthropogenic landscape, including deposits of agricultural terra preta, with a network of polities each of which covered about 250 square kilometers. [cite journal|last=Heckenberger|first=Michael J.|coauthors=J. Christian Russell, Carlos Fausto, Joshua R. Toney, Morgan J. Schmidt, Edithe Pereira, Bruna Franchetto, Afukaka Kuikuro|date=2008-09-29|title=Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon|journal=Science|publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science|volume=321|issue=5893|pages=1214-1217]

In popular culture

The name has at least one reference in literature, as the title of a humorous Edith Wharton short story from 1911. It also the title of a song on Waterfall Cities, a 1999 album by Ozric Tentacles. A Beer produced near the river is sold in the international market under the name "Xingu".

In the NY Times bestselling novel "The Relic" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, the Xingu River is the location of the doomed Whittlesey/Maxwell expedition responsible for discovering evidence of the lost Kothogo tribe and their savage god Mbwun.

References

* Cowell, Adrian. 1973. "The Tribe that Hides from Man". The Bodely Head, London.
* "Original text from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica"

Further reading

* Heinsdijk, Dammis, and Ricardo Lemos Fróes. "Description of Forest-Types on "Terra Firme" between the Rio Tapajós and the Rio Xingú in the Amazon Valley". 1956.