headwater of the Amazon, rising in the snowcapped Andes above Lake Lauricocha in central Peru, about 100 miles (160 km) from the Pacific Ocean. It flows northwest across windswept plateaus 12,000 feet (3,650 m) high and carves a deep canyon between Andean ranges. As the Marañón passes through high jungle in its midcourse, it is marked by a series of unnavigable rapids and falls. Emerging from the most spectacular of these rapids, the Pongo de Manseriche, the river is only 575 feet (175 m) above sea level. For the rest of its 879-mile (1,415-km) course, it meanders eastward through hot, sparsely populated rain forest and receives the Huallaga River. It combines with the Ucayali River below Nauta to form the Amazon.