Lawriqucha

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The lake Laguna Lauricocha located in the mountain ranges of the Andes in the central Peru.

Location

The lake Laguna Lauricocha is located in the province of Lauricocha, Huánuco region, and is the most northerly of the lakes that are fed by the Andean glaciers. It lies 20 kilometers east of the Andean summit Yerupaja and 190 km north- northeast of the Peruvian capital Lima. The lake lies at an altitude of 3845 m above sea level in one of the most thinly populated strip of land of Peru.

Size

The lake is in east-west direction to a length of 7000 m and 1400 m wide at its widest point in the north-south direction.

River system

The Laguna Lauricocha is fed by several small streams from the Cordillera Raura just 10 km away. The Río Lauricocha flows out of the Laguna Lauricocha and joins later with the Río Nupe to the Río Marañón, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon. For several centuries the Laguna Lauricocha had been regarded as the origin of the Amazon; However, discovered in 1971, the American Loren McIntyre, that the source of the Río Apurimac is the real origin of the Amazon, which has been confirmed by another expedition in 2001.

• Lake in South America
• See in Peru
• Amazon River system
• Huánuco (Region)