CHILE

CHILE.

Tourism promotion.
Maule River Valley.
Stamp issued on 27.09.1962.
Face value: 10 cents of Chilean escudo.
Printed by Casa de Moneda de Chile.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Print: 5,000,000 copies.
Size: 33 x 29 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 601.
- Scott No. 328.
- StampWorld No. 589.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 494.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 292.

The Maule River, which flows in the Chilean Maule Region, has a length of 240 km (150 mi) and with its tributaries constitutes a hydrographic basin that covers around 20,600 km² (8,000 sq mi). It has its origin in the Laguna del Maule, in the Andes range, at an altitude of 2,165 m (7,103 ft) above sea level. Most of its path through the Central Valley (represented in the stamp) does so without receiving tributaries. Its two most important tributaries are the Claro river to the north, and the Loncomilla river to the south. In its upper part, the Maule is dammed in two reservoirs, Colbún and Machicura, whose hydraulic force moves the turbines of the Colbún-Machicura hydroelectric complex. It empties into the Pacific Ocean, just north of the city of Constitución. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors to the Mapuche territory, the Inca Empire extended its influence southwards, reaching up to the banks of the Maule River; according to the chronicle of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, with the name of the Mauli or Maule river, its course established the southern border of the Inca state with the peoples known to the Spanish as Araucanians.