Manaus

In the hot and humid city of Manaus, you can not only sense it, but also smell it: the Amazon jungle on your doorstep. In the late 17th century, the Portuguese founded a mission station on the banks of the Rio Negro, which in Manaus is still two thousand kilometers away from its mouth into the Atlantic. As it was located in a problematic region, it was heavily fortified. However, Manaus got its name from the Manaus Indians who had lived there for centuries. During the so-called "rubber boom", the city on the edge of the rainforest developed into an economically interesting metropolis.