Belem is a city in the northern part of Brazil. It is the capital and also the biggest city of the state of Para. It is the entrance gate and, together with Manaus, the most important city in the Brazilian Amazonia region. The city was founded in 1616 by captain Francisco Caldeiras de Castelo Branco, who was sent by the Portuguese crown to defend the region against French, Dutch and British colonization attempts. In 1835 it was a town of about 13,000. A small hill overlooking the main harbor was topped by a colonial Portuguese fort and shore batteries. Due to the growing importance of rubber from the end of the 19th until the beginning of the 20th century, Belem became a very important marketplace.
Visit the Emilio Goeldi Museum. It was founded in 1866 and known internationally as the most important centre for the study of and research into the natural history of the Amazon Rain Forest, the Emilio Goeldi Museum, in Belem has more than a thousand species of plants and over six hundred animals that are native to Amazonia. Lynxes, monkeys, parrots, sparrow-hawks, parakeets, alligators and a wide variety of fish, otters, turtles and snakes are the residents.