Sunset in Santarem

Santarem city, west of central Para esrado (state) in North Brazil, on the bank of Tapaios river near the convergence to the Amazon river.

Santarem  founded in 1661 as a Jesuit mission. to a Tapajo Indian settlement  (aldeia)  where a fort was built by Pedro Tiexeira. It became a town in 1758 known as Tapajos and converted to a city in 1848. Confeederate exiles settled in Santarem after the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Santarem is the most important town on the Amazon,  between Belem, 600 miles down river to the east and Manaus 450 miles upstream to the west. The main trade in the Tapajos river is from rosewood oil, rubber, lumber and jute with rice, feijao (beans), cassava (manioc), and /malva ( plam-shaped herb are principal crops. Bauxite is converted into aluminum  in ~Santarem and petroleum and alcohol fuels are processed there.