The State of Pará (second largest in Brazil), has 1,248,042 km2 of extension, which corresponds to more than 16% of the Brazilian territory and 26% of the Amazon region. The state is currently divided into 143 municipalities, with over six million inhabitants.
The city of Santa Maria de Belém do Grão-Pará, known simply as Belém, is the state capital, considered as the entrance portal to the Amazon region and is one of the main cities in the whole region.
For over 200 years, the major religious procession in Brazil, known as "Círio de Nazaré", has been taking place in Belém, on the second Sunday of October, attracting millions of Brazilians and people from all over the world to the capital of Pará.
It is right in the state of Pará that the famous Isle of Marajó is located, the largest fluvial-marine island in the world, with around 250 thousand inhabitants, in an area equivalent to the Brazilian states of Sergipe and Alagoas, together. The isle is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and by the rivers Amazon and Tocantins.
Another city in Pará, which arouses curiosity is Altamira, with its 178,078 Km2 of extension is nothing but the largest municipality in the world, with an area larger than a few European countries. Inside the powerful forests of Altamira are various indigenous areas, such as: Arara, Arawetê, Curuá, Kararaô, among others.
It is in the state of Pará, but also in Maranhão and Amapá, that the Pororoca, a word that comes from "poroc poroc", which means "destructive, huge, boom", in the native dialect of the lower Amazon River. The phenomenon is characterized by the striking violence of the waves when the waters of the river encounter with the waters of the sea, which can last over 1 hour. It has been by a Brazilian, native of the southern state of Paraná, Sergio Laus, the worldwide record for staying on top of the "pororoca", in 2006, after having surfed it for 10.1 km, without stopping (in the state of Amapá), duly included in the book of records.
The State of Pará has a strong influence over most states of the Country's northern region, either for their speech or for some of their typical dishes.
From the region of Serra dos Carajás, state of Pará, different mineral resources are extracted, aimed at exportation, as iron ore, manganese, copper, that are carried alongside the Carajás Railroad until the Ponta da Madeira Port, in São Luís (MA), the state having many other mineral resources, as gold, bauxite, etc.
