Codó is a city in the

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It has an estimated population of 123,116 (2020) and an area of 4,361.344 km². Therefore, the sixth most populous municipality in the state. It has the largest concentration of religious centers of African origin in Brazil, with 400 terreiros.

Geography

Codó is situated in the

northeastern Brazil The Northeast Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Nordeste do Brasil; ) is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Of Brazil's twenty-six states, it comprises n ...

, in eastern

. The city intersects with the BR-316 road and São Luís-Teresina railway, which serves as the main port of distribution of goods, such as fuels, cement and pig iron. despite being located in the state of Maranhão, it is much more connected to the state capital of Teresina due to its proximity of only 169 kilometers. The average land elevation is approximately 47 m above sea level, the predominant climate is tropical. UTC-3 time zone. It is also located in the Maranhão Babaçu Forest region (''região dos cocais''), in the Itapecuru Valley. The Codó watershed is made up of the Itapecuru River, its important affluent, the Codozinho River, which has the Saco River as its affluent.

Tourism

Carnival is the biggest party, which attracts people from neighboring cities, such as

Teresina Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. Being located in north-central Piauí 366 km from the coast, it is the only capital in the Brazilian Northeast that is not located on the shores of t ...

and São Luís. It is also famous for its off-season carnivals, such as Cornofolia, Tsunami, Vivo Bebu, etc. The

Festa Junina ''Festas Juninas'' (, ''June Festivals'', "festivities that occur in the month of June"), also known as ''festas de São João'' for their part in celebrating the nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24), are the annual Brazilian celebrations ...

and Afro-religious (''terecô'') celebrations, such as those of the Umbanda master Bita do Barão in August, attracts countless people, from other Brazilian states and even tourists from other countries.

Education

Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English and Spanish are part of the official

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

curriculum. Educational institutions include: * Universidade Federal do Maranhão (UFMA) *

Universidade Estadual do Maranhão Universidade Estadual do Maranhão (UEMA, English: ''State University of Maranhão'') is a public state university in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. It was founded on March 25, 1987, and is based in São Luís. In addition to the Universidade ...

(UEMA) * Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e tecnologia do Maranhão (IFMA) * Instituto Estadual de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Maranhão (IEMA)

Notable people

* Marcos Pimentel (born 1983), footballer

References

Municipalities in Maranhão {{Maranhão-geo-stub