page_title: Essequibo River
section_title: 2013
hierarchical_section_title: Essequibo River / Expeditions / 2013
caption_attribution_description: English: source area
context_page_description: The Essequibo River is the largest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil–Guyana border, the Essequibo flows to the north for 1,014 kilometres through forest and savanna into the Atlantic Ocean. With a total drainage basin of 69,300 square kilometres and an average discharge of 2,104 cubic metres per second.
  Territory near the river is argued over by Venezuela and Guyana. Venezuela considers that the natural border according to the divortium aquarum that delimits the eastern margin of that country with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana is "by law", although due to the territorial dispute between the two countries for the sovereignty of Guayana Esequiba, it is "De facto administered and occupied for the most part by the former English colony of British Guiana, present-day Guyana.
context_section_description: A Guyanese-German expedition in Guyana in April and May 2013 followed the course of the Sipu River to detect the still unknown headwaters of the Essequibo. It was sponsored by the French-German TV Company ARTE and was organized by Duane De Freitas (Rupununi Trails) and the film production team of Marion Pöllmann and Rainer Bergomaz (Blue Paw Artists). The responsible scientist for remote sensing, geodesy and mapping was Prof. Dr. Martin Oczipka from the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (HTW Dresden). The expedition was only realizable with the support of the Guyanese government and the indigenous tribe of Wai-Wai-Amerindian settling in the very south of Guyana.
  With the support of the Wai-Wai, satellite maps, topographic maps, GPS and a small drone, the source valley was discovered in 2013. The coordinate determined by expedition teams in 2013 deviates by approximately 40`, which corresponds to a distance of at least 80 km north. This could be caused by calculation errors or other mistakes. Possibly he followed a different branch of the river more in the South of Guyana. To further investigate this, additional research is necessary, preferably in the original reports of Robert Hermann Schomburgk from his expedition in 1837/38. For the accurate determination of the headwaters and their proper classification, further extensive geological and hydrological studies are necessary.
caption: close to the source area of Sipu river
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