Ipueira

Ipueira lies beside the São Francisco River at Xique-Xique, where a channel and lake bear the name. Waters held in the ipueira shelter fish as the river recedes, while the surrounding banks supported cattle estates. In 1685 the Portuguese landholder Theobaldo José Miranda Pires de Carvalho established Fazenda Praia on the right bank of the lake. The estate became a nucleus of settlement in this part of the São Francisco valley.