Macapá
Encyclopedia
Macapá is a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

, capital
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....

 of Amapá
Amapá
Amapá is one of the states of Brazil, located in the extreme north, bordering French Guiana and Suriname to the north. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south and west is the Brazilian state of Pará. Perhaps one of the main features of the state is the River Oiapoque, as it was once...

 state. Located in the North Region
North Region, Brazil
The North Region of Brazil is the largest Region of Brazil, corresponding to 45.27% of the national territory. It is the least inhabited of the country, and contributes with a minor percentage in the national GDP and population...

, it is the only state capital that has no highway connections with other capitals. Also of interest is the fact that the north and south sections of the city are divided by the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

.

Fifth richest city in northern Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, the municipality stands alone, 2.85% of the entire Gross Domestic Product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....

 (GDP) in the region
Region
Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity...

, and with a population of 499,166 in its metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:* A metropolis* A metropolitan area* A metropole, "mother country", or central part of a colonizing state* Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see"...

 area, Macapá is the third largest urban area in the North. Its area is 6407 km ² representing 4.4863% of the area of the state, 0.1663% and 0.0754% of the Region of the Brazilian territory that total 32.7 km ² are in the urban perimeter. The city alone accounts for 60% of the population of state of Amapá and 3.50% of the population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of the entire northern region of Brazil.
According to surveys conducted by IBGE in 2010, the city has a population of 397,913, of which
Which
Which is an English relative pronoun and interrogative pronoun.Which may also refer to:*Which?, a UK charity and its magazine*which , a Unix command*Template:Which, a Wikipedia inline tag- See also :...

 97.92% live in urban areas and 2.08% live in rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 districts. With an area of 6563 km ², the poulation density of Macapá is approximately 60.62 inhabitants per km ². Macapá stands out, among the majority of Brazilian cities, by rapid economic growth seen in its population.
The name Macapá is of Tupi origin and is a variation of "Macpaba", which means place of many bacabas, a palm tree native to the region, the bacabeira (scientific name 'Oenocarpus bacaba Mart.'). Before being named Macapá, the first name for the city was Nueva Andalucia Adelantado , officially granted by Charles V of Spain in 1544, in a concession to Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish navigator who was in the region.

History

Macapá is a corruption of the Tupi
Tupian languages
The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.-History, members and classification:...

 word macapaba, or place of many bacabas. A bacaba is the fruit of the local palm. The Spanish called it Adelantado de Nueva Andalucía when it was claimed for Spain by Francisco de Orellana
Francisco de Orellana
Francisco de Orellana was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He completed the first known navigation of the length of the Amazon River, which was originally named for him...

 in 1544. In 1738 a Portuguese military detachment was stationed in Macapá, and on 4 February 1758 Sebastião Veiga Cabral, the illegitimate child of the military governor of Trás-os-Montes
Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro
Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro is a historical province of Portugal located in the northeastern corner of the country. Vast plateaus, river valleys, mountains, and castles abound in Trás os Montes e Alto Douro....

, Sebastião Veiga Cabral, founded the town of São José de Macapá, under the authority of the governor of Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...

, Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado.

The fortress of São José de Macapá was first laid out in 1764, but it took 18 years to complete, due to illness among the Indian workers, and escapes made by the Black workers.

Macapá gained international notoriety in December 2001 when international yachtsman Peter Blake
Peter Blake (yachtsman)
Sir Peter James Blake, KBE was a New Zealand yachtsman who won the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Jules Verne Trophy – setting the fastest time around the world of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds on catamaran Enza, and led his country to successive victories in the America’s Cup...

, from New Zealand, was murdered while anchored on his explorer yacht Seamaster in Macapá port.

Location

Macapá is located 345 km from Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...

, but is accessible only by boat or airplane. There are no through roads to "mainland Brazil", although it is possible to drive to Georgetown, Guyana.

Vegetation

The natural vegetation in the Macapá region is tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforest
A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...

. This biome is characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 2,000 mm (about 78 inches or 2 meters) and 1700 mm (about 67 inches). The soil can be poor because high rainfall tends to leach out soluble nutrients. There are several common characteristics of tropical rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 trees. Tropical rainforest species frequently possess one or more of the following attributes not commonly seen in trees of higher latitudes or trees in drier conditions on the same latitude.

Climate

Macapá has a tropical monsoon climate
Tropical monsoon climate
Tropical monsoon climate, occasionally also known as a tropical wet climate or tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate in climate classification, is a relatively rare type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category "Am."Tropical monsoon climates have monthly...

 under the Koppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

. The city features a lengthy wet season
Wet season
The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...

 which runs from December through August, and a relatively short dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...

 that covers the remaining three months. However, a noticeable amount of precipitation is observed even during the dry season, a trait common to a number of other cities with this climate. Average temperatures are relatively consistent throughout the course of the year Macapá, with average daily temperatures hovering around 27 C.

Economy

The GDP for the city was R$ 2,826,458,000 (2005).

The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was R$ 7,950 (2005).

Education

The Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 (due to the proximity with French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

) are part of the official high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...

.

Educational institutions

  • Universidade Federal do Amapá (Unifap);
  • Universidade Estadual do Amapá (UEAP);
  • Faculdade de Macapá (Fama);
  • Faculdade de Tecnologia do Amapá (META);
  • and many others.

International airport

The city is served by Alberto Alcolumbre International Airport
Macapá International Airport
Macapá-Alberto Alcolumbre International Airport is the airport serving Macapá, Brazil. Since April 22, 2009 the airport is named after Alberto Alcolumbre, a local businessman.It is operated by Infraero.-History:The airport was opened in 1970....

.

Highways

The city is connected with the rest of the country through the following highways: AP-010, linking the capital to the city of Santana
Santana, Amapá
Santana is a municipality located in the southeast of the state of Amapá in Brazil. Its population is 98,600 and its area is 1,578 km². Santana is a suburb of Macapá, the state capital. Its location is nearly on the equator...

, southwest of Macapá; AP-030, linking Macapá to the city of Mazagão
Mazagão
Mazagão is a municipality located in the south of the state of Amapá in Brazil. Its population is 13,913 and its area is 13,131 km²....

 and BR-156, linking Macapá to the south of Amapá and to Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...

, more specifically to the city of Laranjal do Jari
Laranjal do Jari
Laranjal do Jari is a municipality located in the west of the state of Amapá in Brazil. Its population is 39,285 and its area is 29,699 km2....

, and to the north to the city of Oiapoque
Oiapoque
Oiapoque is a municipality in the north of the state of Amapá, Brazil. Its population is 11,449 and its area is 22,625 km². Oiapoque is also a major river in the same state, forming the international border with French Guiana...

.

External links

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