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Brazil has one of the most extensive river systems in the world with eight drainage basills. The Amazon and the Tocantins-Araguaia basins in the north account for 56 percent of Brazil's total drainage area. The Amazon River, the world's largest river in volume of water and second longest after the Nile, is 4,087 miles (6,577 km ) long, of which 2,246 miles (3,615 krn) are in Brazilian territory. The river is navigable by ocean steamers as far as 2,414 miles (3,885 km) upstream reaching Iquitos in Peru.
 The Paraná-Paraguai river system drains the area from the southwestern portion of the state of Minas Gerais southward until it reaches the Atlantic through the River Plate (Rio da Prata) near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Brazil's two southernmost states are drained through the Uruguay River also into the Prata. The São Francisco River is the largest river wholly within Brazil, flowing for over 1,000 miles (1,609 km) northward before it turns eastward into the Atlantic. It rises, like the Paraná and the Tocantins, in the Central Highlands of the country. The upper river is navigable for shallow-draft riverboats in some areas, but only the last 172 miles (277 km) of the lower river is navigable for ocean-going ships.
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