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Urubamba River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Urubamba River is a river in Peru. A partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River, it rises in the Andes to the south-east of Cuzco near the Puno Region border (where it is called the Vilcanota) and flows north-north-west for 724 kilometers before coalescing with the lower Apurímac River to form the Ucayali River.
The Urubamba is divided into Upper and Lower, the dividing feature being the Pongo de Mainique, an infamous whitewater canyon. The Upper Urubamba valley features a high population and extensive irrigation works. A number of ruins of the Inca Empire lie in the valley, including the Incan city of Machu Picchu.
The Lower Urubamba is relatively undeveloped and features a significant indigenous population consisting of the Campa tribes, principally the Machiguenga (Matsigenka) and Ashaninka. The economy is based on forestry and the nearby Camisea Gas Project. The main settlement in the region is the town of Sepahua.
John Walter Gregory, the British geologist, drowned in the river on 2 June 1932 while on a geological expedition to the Andes.