About Manaus

Manaus is located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, and access to the city is primarily through boat or airplane. This isolation helped preserve both the nature as well as the culture of the city. The culture of Manaus, more than in any other urban area of Brazil, preserves the habits of Native Brazilian tribes. The city is the main entrance to visit the fauna and flora of the Brazilian Amazon. Few places in the world afford such a variety of plants, birds, insects, and fishes.

It was known at the beginning of the century, as "Heart of the Amazon" and "City of the Forest". Currently its main economic engine is the Industrial Pool of Manaus, the famous Free Economic Zone. The city has a free port and an international airport. Its manufactures include electronics, chemical products, and soap; there are distilling and ship construction industries. Manaus also exports Brazil nuts, rubber, jute and rosewood oil. It has a cathedral, opera house, zoological and botanical gardens, an ecopark and regional and native peoples museums.

With a population of 1.9 million people in 2014, Manaus is the most populous city in the Brazilian Amazon area and the 7th most populous in the country. Located on the north bank of the Negro River, 11 miles (18 km) above the meeting of the rivers where the Negro merges with the Solimões, Manaus is 900 miles (1,450 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean. It is the hub of tourism for the rivers, the jungle lodges and the river cruises.

The Solimões and Negro rivers meet in Manaus and join to form the Amazon River (using the Brazilian definition of the river; elsewhere, Solimões is considered the upper part of the Amazon). Rubber made it the richest city in South America