Manaus

About Manaus

A city of two million people in the middle of the largest rainforest on earth, reached mainly by river or air, Manaus is one of the most extraordinary urban places anywhere. It sits on the Rio Negro just above its meeting with the Solimoes, where the two rivers flow side by side without mixing before forming the Amazon.

The rubber boom of the late nineteenth century made Manaus fabulously rich almost overnight. Rubber barons imported iron, marble and glass from Europe to build the pink-and-gold Teatro Amazonas, the elegant Municipal Market and grand palaces, and the city was among the first in Brazil with electric street lighting. When the boom collapsed in the early twentieth century, much of that splendour was left frozen in time.

Today Manaus is the gateway to the Amazon. Boats leave the floating port for jungle lodges, river beaches and villages, while within the city you can climb a canopy tower at the Amazon Museum, see manatees at the Bosque da Ciencia and swim at Ponta Negra. Try tambaqui fish, tacaca soup and the tart cupuacu fruit.