From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rio de Janeiro Hotels

Statistics
Capital:	Rio de Janeiro
Area:	43,696,054km²
Inhabitants:	12,807,706 (?)
Pop. density:	366.6 inh./km²
Timezone:	GMT -3
ISO 3166-2:	BR-RJ
Governor:	Rosângela Matheus
Map

The coat of arms of the Rio de Janeiro state

Rio de Janeiro is one of the 26 states of Brazil (plus the Federal District). It has an area of 43,653km² and is situated on the southeastern coast. Its capital is the city of Rio de Janeiro, which was the colony's capital as of 1764 (the first being Salvador da Bahia), and the nation's capital from 1822 to 1960. In the year 2000, the population was 12,807,706.

Governor: Rosângela Matheus (since January 1, 2003).

Lieutenant Governor: Luiz Paulo Conde (former mayor of Rio de Janeiro).

Contents

Flag

Flag of Rio de Janeiro

Here the flag can be seen with the eagle, symbol of Brazil's royal family and God's Finger Rock in the back, which is visible from Rio de Janeiro in a clear day.

Location

This Brazilian state is in the east of the southeastern subdivision of Brazil, which also contains the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. It has as its limits: The Atlantic Ocean (E), the state of Espírito Santo (N), the state of Minas Gerais (N) and (W), and the state of São Paulo (S).

Rio de Janeiro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ipanema Beach

Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in Portuguese) is the name of both a state and a city in southeastern Brazil. The city is famous for the hotel-lined tourist beaches Copacabana and Ipanema, for the giant statue of Jesus Christ the Redeemer ("Cristo Redentor") on the Corcovado mountain, and for its yearly Carnival celebration. The current mayor is Cesar Maia.

The population of the city proper of Rio de Janeiro is about 6,150,000 (as of 2004), occupying an area of 1256 km² (485 sq. miles). The larger metropolitan area population is estimated at 10-13 million.

Contents

1 History

2 City Districts

2.1 Centro
2.2 South Zone
2.3 North Zone
2.4 West Zone
2.5 Barra da Tijuca

History

The bay where Rio de Janeiro is located (Guanabara Bay) was discovered by Europeans on January 1, 1502, by a Portuguese explorer Gaspar de Lemos; he named it "Rio" because he thought it was a river mouth rather than a bay.

The city of Saint Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro was founded by the Portuguese Estacio de Sá on March 1, 1565, during the 12-year struggle to expel French Protestants that invaded the region (see "France Antarctique"). The name of the city was given in honor to King Sebastian.

Rio de Janeiro was Brazil's capital from 1764 to 1960, when the government was transferred to Brasília, but remains the second biggest city in the country, after São Paulo. Between 1808 and 1821, during the Napoleonic invasion on Metropolitan Portugal, the city became the capital of Portugal and its extensive empire.

1888 German map of Rio de Janeiro

City Districts

The city is commonly divided into the historic downtown (Centro), the more touristic South Zone, with world-famous beaches, the industrial North Zone, the West Zone, and the newer Barra da Tijuca region.

Centro

Centro is the historic downtown of the city. Sites of interest include both the historic Church of the Candelaria and the modern-style cathedral, the Municipal Theater, and several museums. Centro remains the heart of the city's business community. The "Bondinho", a trolley car, leaves from a downtown station, crosses a former Roman-style aqueduct, and rambles through the hilly streets of the Santa Teresa neighborhood nearby.

South Zone

The southern zone of Rio de Janeiro is composed of several districts, amongst them are São Conrado, Leblon, Ipanema, Arpoador, Copacabana and Leme, which composes Rio's famous beach coastline.

The neighborhood of Copacabana beach boasts one of the world's most spectacular New Year's Eve parties, as more than two million revellers crowd onto the sands to watch the firework display. As of 2001, the fireworks have been launched from boats, to further guarantee the safety of the event.

Passing Copacabana and Leme, on the district of Urca lies the Sugarloaf Mountain ("Pão de Açúcar"), whose name characterises the famous hump rising out of the sea. The top can be reached via cable car, accessible from the Hill of Urca ("Morro da Urca"), and offers views second only to Corcovado mountain. The tallest mountain in the city, however, at 842m, is the Pedra da Gávea (Topsail Rock) in São Conrado. Hang gliding is a popular activity on a nearby peak - after a short flight, they land on the Praia do Pepino beach in São Conrado.

Since 1961, the Tijuca forest is a National Park.

A view of Ipanema from Corcovado. The Cagarras Islands can be seen on the background

North Zone

The North Zone of Rio is home to the Maracanã stadium, still the world's highest capacity football venue, able to hold nearly 200,000 people (however, the biggest stadium of any type is located in Prague (Czech Republic) but it is not suitable for football). In modern times, the capacity has been reduced to conform with modern safety regulations, and the introduction of seating for all fans. Currently undergoing renovation, it will eventually hold around 120,000. Maracanã will be the site for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and soccer competition of the 2007 Pan American Games.

West Zone

The West Zone is the metropolitan region which is most distant from the Center of Rio de Janeiro. It includes Barra da Tijuca, Jacarepaguá, Campo Grande, Santa Cruz and Bangu. Barra da Tijuca remains an area of accelerated growth, attracting mainly the richer sector of the population, whereas neighbouring districts within the West Zone reveal stark differences between social classes. The area has industrial zones, but some agricultural areas still remain in its wide area. Beyond the neighbourhoods of Barra da Tijuca and Jacarepagua, another district which has exhibited good economic growth is that of Campo Grande. Some modalities of sports of the Pan-American Games of 2007 will be held in the Miécimo da Silva Sports Center, nicknamed the "Algodão" Gymnasium, and others in the Ítalo del Cima Stadium, in Campo Grande.

Barra da Tijuca

To the west of the older zones is Barra da Tijuca, a flat expanse of formerly undeveloped coastal land, which is currently experiencing a wave of new construction. High rise apartments and sprawling shopping malls give the area a far more Americanized feel than the crowded city center (Centro). This has attracted businesses to move to the area to take advantage of this. The large beaches of Barra da Tijuca are also popular with the city's residents. Barra da Tijuca is the home of Pan-American Village for the 2007 Pan American Games.

Botafogo harbour, with the moon above the Sugar Loaf mountain

Favelas

Rio is a city of contrasts, and though much of the city clearly ranks alongside the world's most modern metropoles, a significant percentage of the city's 13 million inhabitants do still live in areas of poorer quality housing. The worst of these poorer areas are the slums known as favelas, often crowded onto the hillsides where sturdy buildings are difficult to build, and accidents, mainly from heavy rainfall, are frequent. Favelas, as is the case for the ghettos of New York or Chicago, are often troubled by drug related crime and gang warfare.

Carnival

The carnival in Rio de Janeiro has many choices including the famous Escolas de Samba parades in the "sambódromo" and the popular "blocos de carnaval" that parade in almost every corner of the city. The most famous ones are the following:

Cordão do bola preta : Parades in the center of the city, it is one of the most traditional "bloco de carnaval".
Ipanema's band : gay parade that goes through the ipanema beach.
Suvaco do cristo : Band that parade in the botanic garden, right bellow the cristo redentor arm, the name in English translate to "Christ's armpit", and was chosen for that reason.
Carmelitas : Band that was suposedly created by nums, but in fact it is just an alegory of the band. It parades in the hills of Santa Teresa, which have very nice views.

A picture of the north zone of Rio de Janeiro taken from NASA's Landsat 7

Football(Soccer)

Rio de Janeiro is host to four traditional Brazilian football(soccer) clubs: Flamengo, Botafogo, Fluminense and Vasco. The famous Estádio do Maracanã is also located in Rio de Janeiro.

Miscellaneous

The city will host the 2007 Pan American Games from July 13-29, 2007. Copacabana beach will be the site of the triathlon and beach volleyball with yachting competitions held in Guanabara Bay. The city is building a new stadium near the Maracanã, to hold 45,000 people. It will be named after Brazilian ex-FIFA president João Havelange. Rio de Janeiro was also a candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In one episode of The Simpsons, the family went to Rio. The episode angered several tourist officials and they threatened to sue the producers of the show.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has multimedia related to Rio de Janeiro.

Riotur (http://www.rio.rj.gov.br/riotur/en/)
PUC-Rio (http://www.puc-rio.br/) - the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro
COPPE/UFRJ (http://www.coppe.ufrj.br/) - the largest post-graduate and research center in Engineering in Latin America (part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
Wikitravel, the free travel guide, Rio de Janeiro (http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/Rio_de_Janeiro_(city))

In other languages

Cities

Other cities include:

External links

Official homepage (http://www.rj.gov.br) (Portuguese)

States of Brazil
Acre \| Alagoas \| Amapá \| Amazonas \| Bahia \| Ceará \| Federal District \| Espírito Santo \| Goiás \| Maranhão \| Mato Grosso \| Mato Grosso do Sul \| Minas Gerais \| Pará \| Paraíba \| Paraná \| Pernambuco \| Piauí \| Rio de Janeiro \| Rio Grande do Norte \| Rio Grande do Sul \| Rondônia \| Roraima \| Santa Catarina \| São Paulo \| Sergipe \| Tocantins