Editing Tocantins River (section)

== Course ==
It rises in the mountainous district known as the [[Pirineus State Park|Pireneus]], west of the Federal District, but its western tributary, the [[Araguaia River]], has its extreme southern headwaters on the slopes of the [[Serra dos Caiapós]]. The Araguaia flows {{Convert|1670|km|abbr=on}} before its confluence with the Tocantins, to which it is almost equal in volume. Besides its main tributary, the [[Rio das Mortes]], the Araguaia has twenty smaller branches, offering many miles of [[canoe]] navigation. In finding its way to the lowlands, it breaks frequently into waterfalls and [[rapids]], or winds violently through rocky gorges, until, at a point about {{Convert|160|km|abbr=on}} above its junction with the Tocantins, it saws its way across a rocky [[dike (geology)|dyke]] for {{Convert|20|km|abbr=on}} in roaring cataracts.{{Cn|date=March 2021}}
[[File:Rio Tocantins e embarcações.JPG|thumb|Boats on the Tocantins]]
Two other tributaries, called the [[Maranhão River|Maranhão]] and [[Paranatinga]], collect an immense volume of water from the highlands which surround them, especially on the south and south-east. Between the latter and the confluence with the Araguaia, the Tocantins is occasionally obstructed by rocky barriers which cross it almost at a right angle.{{Cn|date=March 2021}}