The River Xingu is located in north east part of Brazil and is 1979 kilometer long (approx. 1230 miles). It is basically a south-east stream of well- known River Amazon, the world’s largest voluminous river.
The river was explored and discovered by German ethnologist named Karl-von-den-steinen in 1887. Before this, people were not aware of its existence and knew very less about this river. Travelling towards the east for about 390 kilometers or 240 miles Karl-von-den-steinen found Tamitatoaba River. This river is 55 meter or 180f wide. The three streams i.e. Tamitatoaba River, River Romero and River Colisu merged to form River Xingu.
A slight above from where the navigation starts, almost 169 kilo-meters or 105miles, the Xingu River have a curve towards east where it meets with a stony barrier. This is the place where a very well-known water fall of itamaraca is located. It furthermore drags into a plane (inclined) for about 4.8 kilometer, giving a final jump “Fall of Itamaraca”. The government of Brazil in 1950`s constructed the 1st Indian park in the boundaries of River Xingu. Presently around 14 different tribes are situated there.
Nowadays, Brazil government is scheduling to construct a gigantic dam onto the River Xingu. Belo Monte is the named given to the Dam. The Dam will be so huge that it is considered to be the 3rd biggest hydro-electric mission or project in the present world. The water from Xingu River will be diverted via artificial constructed canals which will lead the flow to the power house.