Discovering South America: Brazil

Brazil’s Colorful, Crowded Cities 43

Horizonte, a major industrial and commercial city in Minas Gerais; and Brasília, the national capital of Brazil. Each of these cities forms the core of a larger urban area. There are six other cities in Brazil with more than a million inhabitants: Manaus, a port on the Río Negro near its confluence with the Amazon; Belém, a northern port near the mouth of the Amazon; Fortaleza and Recife, along the northeastern coast; and Curitiba and Pôrto Alegre in the south.

The Nossa Senhora da Sé Cathedral in Rio Branco. Brazil has many beautiful cathedrals and churches; roughly two-thirds of the population is Roman Catholic.