Altamira (Pará)
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Coordinates: 3 ° 13 ′ S , 52 ° 13 ′ W Location of the city of Altamira in the state of Pará
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| Basic data | ||
| Country |
 Brazil
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| State |
 Pará
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| City foundation | November 6, 1911 (Munizip) | |
| Residents | 114,594 (estimate as of July 1, 2019) | |
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| Detailed data | ||
| surface | 159,533.255 | |
| Population density | 0.71 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| height | 109 m | |
| City structure | 2 districts (Princesa do Xingu, Castelo de Sonhos) | |
| Waters | Rio Xingu | |
| Post Code | 68370-68379 | |
| prefix | (+55) 93 | |
| Time zone | UTC −3 | |
| City Presidency | Domingos Juvenil (2017-2020) | |
| City patron | James the Elder | |
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Altamira , officially Município de Altamira , is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Pará , 754 km south of the capital Belém , in the Região Norte of Brazil. The core town, the city of Altamira, developed from a mission station that was founded in the middle of the 18th century on the outskirts of Igarapé das Panelas by the Jesuit priest Roque de Hundefund after he was the first European to explore the Rio Xingu .
According to the 2010 census, Altamira had 99,075 inhabitants, who are called Altamirese. As of July 1, 2019, 114,5945 inhabitants were estimated, with a population density of around 0.71 inhabitants per km². With 159,533.255 km² (for comparison: Germany has 357,168 km²) Altamira is the largest municipality in Brazil in terms of area, the third largest municipality in the world and almost four times the size of Switzerland .
geography
The core of the municipality Altamira is located on the Transamazônica BR-230 on the west bank of the Rio Xingú in the far northeast of the municipality. The Belo Monte hydropower plant , which has been partially in operation since the beginning of May 2016 , is located around 40 km downstream . In the final stage, Belo-Monte ( Beautiful Mountain ) will flood an area of 400 km². To this end, 235 hectares of primeval forest will be cleared, an area the size of Lake Constance will be flooded, and 20,000 indigenous people will be resettled. The project in the north of the Amazon should be fully completed by 2019 and then have an output of 11,233 megawatts . Up to 60 million people should be supplied with energy in this way.
The Altamira municipality occupies 12.8% of the territory of the state of Pará, 1.8% of the Brazilian territory and 0.8% of the territory of South America . Their area is larger than that of some smaller industrialized countries such as Austria, the Netherlands, South Korea or Israel. It is divided into the Altamira district and the city with the seat of the local government. Altamira is the seat of the Xingu Territorial Prelature .
population
The population of Altamira lives mainly in the core town, as well as in nine other mostly rural territories, which are mostly covered by the Amazon rainforest . It is home to hundreds of indigenous communities as well as extensive nature reserves . The inhabited areas are sometimes between ten and one hundred kilometers apart.
tourism
Altamira is potentially of great tourist interest especially in ecotourism because of the huge Amazon rainforest within its borders. There are a number of Indian reservations . The possibilities for the use of tourism are currently still being investigated.
Personalities
- Erwin Kräutler , Bishop and Prelate of the Territorial Prelature Xingu and winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, is an honorary citizen of Altamira.
- Caetano Antônio Lima dos Santos , later lay bishop of Ilhéus, was born in Altamira in 1916.
Web links
- Altamira City Prefecture website (Brazilian Portuguese)
- Altamira City Chamber website (Brazilian Portuguese)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Altamira - Panorama . 2019. Accessed September 10, 2019.
- ↑ Drama on the Rio Xingu . naturwelt.org. Accessed July 25, 2016.
- ↑ Brazil puts controversial mega power plant into operation . spiegel.de. Accessed July 24, 2016.
- ^ Website of Bishop Kräutler . bischof-kraeutler.at. Accessed July 25, 2016.