The Amazon rainforest is one of the most fascinating and most mysterious places on Earth.

It sprawls seemingly endlessly across a vast area of South America, roughly 6 million square kilometres all in – an area of land that's about equivalent to ¾ of the continental United States.

The majority of the rainforest, about 60 per cent of it, is contained within the borders of Brazil but significant parts of it also extend into Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana.