Amazon region or Amazon basin is located in South America. The region drained by Amazon River is called Amazon basin. The river flows across Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Hence, all these together is called Amazon region. The area is mostly covered with dense rainforest and it is the largest rainforest in the world. They say the Amazon is the lungs of the planet since it produces 20% of the oxygen used in the planet.

Fact 1: The highest amount of Bio diversity is seen in Amazon forest. Researchers say that 1 out of 10 animal species live in the Amazon forest. Just one hectare of the forest can contain upto 750 species of trees and 1500 species of other plants. More than half of the species known to humans are from Amazon. It’s believed that there are still lot many species of animals and plants which are not yet discovered.

Fact 2: Most widely spoken language in Amazon is Portuguese and Spanish. On the Brazilian side of the Amazon 98% of the people speak Spanish. Most of the people in Spanish speaking areas also speak native languages. The most common native language is Nheengatu.

Fact 3: Half of the world tropical forest is in the Amazon region. The tropical forests are the regions which are prone to extreme weathers.  Being situated approximately 12 degree south and north of the equator Amazon region has a typical tropical weather. This region receives upto 60 to 80 inches rainfall in rainy season. In fact throughout the year it is raining here. However, the rain will reduce up to 30 to 100 inches in off seasons. There’s is absolutely no dry season.

Fact 4: The flora and fauna has the widest range of diversity. Most of the creatures found here are not found anywhere else on the earth. Some of the most dreaded creatures like Anacondas, vampire bats, poisonous dart frogs and Piranhas are found here.

Fact 5: Scientists say if the world temperature raises just 3 degree Celsius, then 75% of the Amazon forest will be destroyed. The weather and temperature changes affect the most in this region.

Fact 6: During past 40 years, 20% of the Amazon is destroyed. Main reason for this is Human activity of course the reason behind all the destruction is this, like we all know. However, here the deforestation is not due to converting the land to agricultural land. The forest is mostly converted to pastures for grazing cattle.

Fact 7: The forest here is so dense that hardly any sunlight reaches the ground. When it rains here the rain water reaches the ground after 10 minutes, the thick canopy of tree above prevents the water reaching the ground immediately. This might be the reason why most of the larger animals are adapted to stay on the trees, not on the ground. Ground is mostly for insects. Over 90% of the creatures in Amazon are insects.

Fact 8: The Amazon basin is bounded by Guiana Highlands to the north and the Brazilian Highlands to the south. The Amazon River is the second largest river in the world. Some of the Brazilian scientists also argue that it is the longest river recently after their expedition extended the Amazon’s length by about 176 miles.

Fact 9: Most of the food we use around the world originally came from here. Some of the foods which we can’t live without are also from here. Some of such foods are Coffee, Cocoa, Rice etc.

Fact 10: There are over 3000 varieties of fruits here. The naives use about 2000 varieties, but rest of the world known only 10% of these fruit varieties.