Discovering South America: Brazil

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Brazil

abruptly rising mountain range covered by a luxuriant tropical forest. Combined with a mild climate, Rio’s landscape makes it one of the most beautiful cities in the world, justify- ing its title of “Marvelous City” ( Cidade Maravilhosa ). Brasília In 1956 construction began on the new capi- tal. Brasília is located in the 2,245-square-mile (5,812-sq-km) Federal District, on an other- wise sparsely inhabited plateau carved out of the state of Goiás. It sits 746 miles (1,201 km) from the former capital of Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian architect and urban planner Lúcio Costa won the competition held for designing Brasília’s complete layout. Oscar Niemeyer, a Brazilian architect, designed the major gov- ernment buildings. Landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx planned the landscaping and selected the vegetation to add a vivid green backdrop to the otherwise dry, yellow landscape of the savanna . On April 21, 1960, Brasília was officially inaugurated and start- ed functioning as the new capital of Brazil.

Many poor people in Brazil’s large cities live in favelas , or slums, such as this one in Rio de Janeiro.