Capital and largest city of Amazonas, Brazil
About Manaus
Manaus is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2024 population of 2,279,686 distributed over a land area of about 11,401 km2 (4,402 sq mi). Located at the east centre of the state, the city is the centre of the Manaus metropolitan area and the largest metropolitan area in the North Region of Brazil by urban landmass. It is situated near the confluence of the Negro and Amazon rivers. It is one of the two cities in the Amazon rainforest with a population of over 1 million people, alongside Belém.
Etymology
The name Manaus comes from the native people called Manaós, which means Mother of the Gods.
History
The history of the European colonization of Manaus began in 1499 with the Spanish arrival at the mouth of the Amazon River. The Spanish then continued to colonize the region north of Brazil. Development continued in 1668–1669 with the building of the Fort of São José da Barra do Rio Negro by the Portuguese in order to ensure its predominance in the region, especially against the Dutch, at that time headquartered in what is today Suriname. The fort was constructed in rock and clay, with four cannons guarding the curtains. It continued to function for more than 100 years. Next to the fort there were many indigenous mestizos, who helped in its construction and began to live in the vicinity. …
Geography
The largest city in northern Brazil, Manaus occupies an area of 11,401 square kilometres (4,402 sq mi), with a density of 158.06 inhabitants per square kilometre (409.4/sq mi). It is the neighboring city of Presidente Figueiredo, Careiro, Iranduba, Rio Preto da Eva, Itacoatiara, and Novo Airão. Manaus is located in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome, and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species-rich than the wet forests in Africa and Asia. As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. More than one-third of all species in the world live in the Amazon rainforest. …
In popular culture
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