Chaves is a Brazilian

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located in the state of

Pará Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...

. Its population as of 2020 is estimated to be 23,948 people. The area of the municipality is 13,084.879 km². The city belongs to the mesoregion

Marajó Marajó () is a large coastal island in the state of Pará, Brazil. It is the main and largest of the islands in the Marajó Archipelago. Marajó Island is separated from the mainland by Marajó Bay, Pará River, smaller rivers (especially M ...

and to the microregion of ''Arari''. Chaves is located near the point where the Amazon River enters the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. A number of islands are part of the municipality, the largest of which are

Caviana Caviana (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Ilha Caviana'', formerly in Aruã language: ''Uyruma'') is a coastal island in the Brazilian state Pará. The island is part of the Amazon Delta. In the 17th and 18th Century it was the stronghold of the ...

and

Mexiana Mexiana ( Portuguese: ''Ilha Mexiana'' ) is a coastal island in the Brazilian state of Pará. The island is part of the municipality of Chaves. The Equator runs through the island. Mexiana is located where the Amazon River flows into the Atlanti ...

. The municipality is contained in the

Marajó Archipelago Environmental Protection Area The Marajó Archipelago Environmental Protection Area () is an environmental protection area in the state of Pará, Brazil. It protects the Marajó Archipelago, made up of marine fluvial islands in the area where the Amazon and Tocantins rivers ...

, a sustainable use conservation unit established in 1989 to protect the environment of the delta region. In the 17th and 18th Century, the area was inhabited by the Aruã, mainly around the Ganhoão River. Most of them migrated to

Amapá Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area ...

and

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

after the Treaty of the Mapuá. In 1793, the Portuguese transferred the ones who had stayed to the lower

Tocantins River The Tocantins River ( , Parkatêjê dialect, Parkatêjê: ''Pyti'' ɨˈti is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (''Tukã'' for "toucan" and ''Ti'' for "beak"). It ...

. On the coast of Chaves, ceramic fragments related to them could still be found, but the advance of the

Vieira Grande Bay Vieira Grande Bay ( Portuguese: ''Baía do Vieira Grande'') is a bay off the Brazilian coast located in the state of Pará. The bay forms one of the main river channels in the Amazon Delta. The bay is fed in the South by the Jacaré Grande River ...

washed them away.

References

Municipalities in Pará Populated coastal places in Pará {{Pará-geo-stub

See also

References