Cotahuasi Canyon

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Cotahuasi Canyon near the city of Arequipa in Peru is considered deepest of the Americas. Its maximum depth is 3535 meters in the sector of Ninancocha, 335 meters more than the Colca Canyon, but less deep than several canyons in the Himalayas. The Cotahuasi Canyon is an impressive edge that the river has opened between two enormous mountainous bulks: the Coropuna (6425 m.s.n.m.) and the Solimana (6093 m.s.n.m.). One extends from spurs of the snow-covered Solimana to the confluence with the Ocoña river.

It is formed by the Cotahuasi River, the one that is born in the lagoon of Huanzococha to more than 4750 m.s.n.m. and later it receives the contribution of the Huayllapaña river in the neighborhoods of Pampamarca, by the north, and the Huarcaya next to Tomepampa, towards the west, crosses thus all the canyon later to be united with the Maran River and to form the Ocoña River that ends at the Pacific Ocean.