RouteBelém

Belém as Amazon Gateway: Biodiversity Capital of Earth

Belém is the capital of Pará — the state covering much of the Brazilian Amazon — and the gateway to the world's largest rainforest; the Emílio Goeldi Museum, the Marajó island, and the rivers surrounding the city make it a biodiversity crossroads

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Museu Emílio Goeldi
The Emílio Goeldi Museum – founded in 1866 – is the largest scientific institution in the Amazon; its research collections (10 million specimens), its aquarium with Amazonian manatees and its botanical garden with Victoria amazonica are important
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Victoria Amazonica Lily
The giant water lily Victoria amazonica – first scientifically described from the Amazon – grows in the Emílio Goeldi pools; the leaves, up to 3 meters in diameter, can support the weight of a child; the flowers, which open white and close pink, bloom for just 48 hours
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Amazonian Manatee
The Amazonian manatee—an entirely freshwater species, the most endangered of the three manatee species—can be seen at the Goeldi Museum's pools; the gentle, slow-moving mammals were once hunted to near extinction for their fat
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MPEG zoological collections
The Goeldi Museum's zoological collection – 10 million specimens of Amazonian fauna – is the scientific basis for research on biodiversity in the Amazon; the collections document species discovered, described and named by European naturalists in the 19th century
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Bosque Rodrigues Alves
Bosque Rodrigues Alves – a 16-hectare neighborhood of the Amazon in the heart of Belém – preserves a patch of original várzea (floodplain) forest; the woodpeckers, coatis, sloths and macaws that live here are a living fragment of pre-colonial Amazonia
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River Island Ecosystems
Belém is surrounded by river islands - Ilha do Mosqueiro, Ilha de Caratateua and the large Ilha do Marajó - each with distinct ecosystems; the islands' beaches, forests and communities are accessible by short ferry rides from the town of