River · Brazil
Xingu
The Xingu is a big clear-water river in Brazil. It starts in the highlands of Mato Grosso, flows north for almost 2 000 km and joins the Amazon near the town of Porto de Moz.
Picture credit: Túllio F (CC BY-SA 4.0) · F Cleyson G. Braz (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Xingu?
The river starts here: Headstreams such as the Culuene in the highlands of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
It ends in the Amazon near Porto de Moz, Pará.
Countries on the river: Brazil.
The story behind it
The Xingu is one of the largest clear-water rivers in the Amazon region. In its upper course it tumbles over countless rapids, so bigger boats can only travel on the lowest 200 kilometres. More than 450 kinds of fish have been found in it. One of the most famous is the zebra pleco, a small catfish only about 6 centimetres long with black and white stripes like a zebra. It lives only in the Big Bend of the Xingu, below the town of Altamira. In 1961 Brazil created the Xingu Indigenous Park, the first of its kind in the country, where 14 Indigenous peoples live. Since 2019 the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam has been running near Altamira. Along a 100-kilometre stretch of the Big Bend it can take away up to 80 percent of the water, which puts the zebra pleco in great danger.
Questions children ask
How long is the Xingu?
The Xingu is about 1 980 km long. Sources differ a lot, with figures from about 1 640 to 2 100 km, depending on where the measurement starts.
What is the Xingu Indigenous Park?
It is a protected area in the Xingu basin, created in 1961 as the first Indigenous park in Brazil. The river gives water and food to around 5 500 Indigenous people who live there.
What does the Belo Monte dam do?
Belo Monte is one of the biggest hydroelectric dams in the world and makes electricity from the Xingu's water. Because much of the water is led away, the Big Bend gets far less water, which is a problem for fish like the zebra pleco.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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