Everything about Sepik totally explained
The
Sepik is the longest river on the island of
New Guinea. The majority of the river flows through the
Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of
Sandaun and
East Sepik, with a small section flowing through the
Indonesian province of
Papua.
The Sepik, pronounced "sea-pick", is one of the great river systems of the world. It has a large catchment area and landforms that include swamplands, tropical rainforests and mountains. Biologically, the river system is possibly the largest uncontaminated freshwater wetland system in the
Asia-Pacific region.
Description
The river originates in the
Victor Emanuel Range in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea. From its mountain headwaters near
Telefomin, it travels north-west and leaves the mountains abruptly near
Yapsei. From here it flows into Indonesian Papua, before turning back north-east for the majority of its journey following the
Great Depression. Along its course it receives numerous tributaries from the
Bewani and
Torricelli Mountains to the north and the
Central Range to the south.
For most of the Sepik's length the river winds in serpentine fashion, like the
Amazon River, to the
Bismarck Sea off northern Papua New Guinea. Unlike many other large rivers, the Sepik has no delta whatsoever, but flows straight into the sea, about east of the town of
Wewak. It is also navigable for most of its length.
The river's total length is and has a drainage basin of over 80,000 km² (30,000 mi²). Upon finding the river, Finsch navigated about upstream from its mouth.
World War II
The
Japanese held the area throughout most of the
Second World War. By the end of the war though, the Japanese had been completely surrounded after
Hollandia in
Netherlands New Guinea was captured in April 1944 during
Operations Reckless and Persecution and
Aitape had fallen during the
campaign in August 1944. The battle to defeat the remaining forces by the
Australian Army was hard fought and drawn out due to the terrain.
The Australians eventually pushed the Japanese back to the village of
Timbunke on the middle Sepik in July 1945. After an Australian
RAAF plane landed from Timbunke the Japanese suspected that the villagers had collaborated with the Australians and proceeded to massacre 100 of the villagers. Eventually the Japanese were defeated and surrendered at
Wewak in September 1945.
Sepik art
The tribes living along the river are noted for their magnificent carvings and elaborate manhood
initiation ceremonies involving
scarification of designs of a crocodile on a riverbank.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sepik'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://sepik.totallyexplained.com">Sepik Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
