Manaus map
Manaus, also known as Manaus in the Portuguese language, is the capital of the state of Amazonas, and one of the main financial, corporate and economic centers of the Northern Region of Brazil. It is located in the center of the world's largest rainforest, near the confluence of the Negro River with the Solimões River, an important developing port in the region and can even be accessed by ocean liners. Manaus belongs to the Mesoregion of the Amazonense Center and to the homonymous microregion. It is the most populated city in the Amazon, with 2,094.3917 inhabitants and approximately 2.5 million inhabitants for its metropolitan area, according to estimates from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics or IBGE. The city gradually increased its share of the gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years, to 1.4% of the country's economy. In the ranking of the magazine América Economía, Manaus appears as one of the 20 most important cities to do business in Latin America, ahead of capitals of Latin American countries such as San Salvador and La Paz.
