South America is the fourth-largest continent and home to the largest river in the world, the Amazon, and the driest place in the world, the Atacama Desert. South America includes three physical regions: mountains and highlands, river basins, and coastal plains, and extends from the northwest in the Gulf of Darién to the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego in the south.

 Being a continent of extreme geographic variation contributes to the continent’s large number of biomes, a community of animals and plants spread over an area with a relatively uniform climate.

Highest Elevation
: Aconcagua, Argentina (6,901 meters/22,641 feet)
Largest Urban Area
: Sao Paulo, Brazil (20.4 million people)
Largest Watershed
: Amazon River (7 million square kilometers/2.72 million square miles)