Tefé, known in early accounts as Teffé, is a municipality in the state of Amazonas, northern Brazil.

Location

Tefé is located about 525 km by air or 595 km by river to the west of

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

on the south bank of the

Rio Solimões Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

(the upper Amazon), on the lake formed by the mouth of the Tefé River. The nearest large city is

Coari Coari (''Choary'') is a Brazilian municipality in the Amazon region. Location The municipal seat of Coari is one of the largest cities of the Amazonas state. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Coari. The area has reserves of oil an ...

, 192 km SE by east of Tefé. The municipal seat of Tefé is the largest town and commercial center of the middle Solimões region. Its population was 59,547 evenly divided between urban and rural, and its area is 23,704 km². There are no roads into Tefé and the only access is by river boat or plane. By fast boat it is about 12 hours from

Azul Linhas Aereas Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S/A (''Azul Brazilian Airlines''; or simply Azul) is a Brazilian carrier based in Barueri, a suburb of São Paulo. The company's business model is to stimulate demand by providing frequent and affordable air serv ...

and Voepass operate flights from

Tefé Airport Tefé Airport is the airport serving Tefé, Brazil. It is named after Orlando Marinho (1925-2018), a former mayor of Tefé. It is operated by Vinci SA. History Operated by Infraero since 1980, on April 7, 2021 Vinci SA won a 30-year concession ...

. The city is the home of the

Territorial Prelature of Tefé A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international relations, international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extr ...

. Tefé is also the major starting point for trips into the Mamiraua Reserve. The municipality is in the Juruá-Purus moist forests ecoregion. It contains 46% of the

Tefé National Forest The Tefé National Forest ( pt, Floresta Nacional de Tefé) is a national forest in Amazonas, Brazil. It protects a relatively well-preserved area of Amazon rainforest to the south of the town of Tefé on the Solimões River (upper Amazon River) ...

, created in 1989. The municipality contains 33.85% of the

Catuá-Ipixuna Extractive Reserve The Catuá-Ipixuna Extractive Reserve ( pt, Reserva Extrativista Catuá-Ipixuna) is an extractive reserve in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It takes its name from two lakes that drain into the Solimões River, or Upper Amazon, and is covered in ...

, established in 2003 as the first extractive reserve in the state of Amazonas.

History

As early as 1620 the Portuguese Carmelites could already boast of converts among the Muras, those natives of the Amazon established around Lake Teffé and on the borders of the neighbouring rivers. Tefé, also called Ega at one time, was the fourth of eight ''aldeias'' founded by

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

missionaries between 1697 and 1751 along the Solimões and Negro Rivers. In 1759 the commandant Joaquim de Mello da Povoas converted the Carmelite mission on Lake Tefé into a town, which he named Ega; it was elevated to a city named Tefé in 1855 (but was known as Tefé before that time). The mission, called Parauarí, was originally established on Ilha dos Veados three leagues from the location on the opposite shore of Lake Tefe, called today by the name of Nogueira. It was abandoned due to a smallpox outbreak in the early 18th century and moved across the lake, where it remains today. The survivors were taken to its present site by F. Andre da Costa in 1817. Henry W. Bates also describes in detail the cultural interactions of the natives with those in the town from his trip in the 1850s. He describes that the natives learned

Tupi Tupi may refer to: * Tupi people of Brazil * Tupi or Tupian languages, spoken in South America ** Tupi language, an extinct Tupian language spoken by the Tupi people * Tupi oil field off the coast of Brazil * Tupi Paulista, a Brazilian municipalit ...

very quickly, and despite having a very large and diverse array of languages spoken all around the Amazon, Tupi was spoken "with little corruption along the banks of the main Amazons for a distance of 2,500 miles." In 1910, an apostolic prefecture, the current Prelature of Teffe, was founded by priests of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

Climate

References

* Bates, Henry Walter (date)

Naturalist on the River Amazons ''The Naturalist on the River Amazons'', subtitled ''A Record of the Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and Aspects of Nature under the Equator, during Eleven Years of Travel'', is an 1863 book by the Britis ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tefe Municipalities in Amazonas (Brazilian state) Populated places on the Amazon Road-inaccessible communities of Brazil