Harbor of Rio de Janeiro Facts
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro Facts
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| Interesting Harbor of Rio de Janeiro Facts: |
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| The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro is located at a latitude of 23o45'S and longitude 44o45'W. This places the Bay and the city of Rio de Janeiro in the tropics. |
| The weather is hot and humid with an average rainfall of 43 inches (1,080 mm). |
| Summer temperature between December and March is between 95 to 100oF (35 to 39oC). Winter temperatures are between 68 to 86oF (20 to 30oC). |
| The Bay of Rio de Janeiro also known as the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro is called Guanabara Bay by the original native people, the Tamoio which means "Arm of the Sea". |
| It was discovered by the Portuguese seafarer, Concalo Coelho on January 1, 1502. This is 511 years ago. He called it Rio de Janeiro which is Portuguese for "River of January". |
| The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro measures 17.4 miles (28 km) from east to west and 18.6 miles (30 km) from north to south. It extends 20 miles (32 km) inland. |
| The Bay spans 88 miles in length and has 50 miles (80 km) of beaches. |
| This harbor has the largest volume of water in the world at 49,470,899 cubic gallons (187,000,000 cubic meters) of water and covers a surface area of 238. 6 square miles (384 square kilometers). |
| Within the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro there are 130 islands that include Governor's Island, Fundao and Snakes Island. |
| The harbor is surrounded by tall granite mountains that include the Hills of Tijuca at 3, 350 feet (1021 m), Corcovado Peak at 2, 310 feet (704 m) and Sugar Loaf Mountain at 1, 296 feet (395 m). |
| On top of Mt. Corcovado there is a 130 foot (39.6 m) tall statue of Jesus Christ. The arms of the statue extend 98 feet (30 m) across. It weighs 635 tons. The statue is called "Christ the Redeemer". |
| These mountains are a part of a mountain chain that runs 1,500 miles (2414 km) along the coast of South America. |
| The mountains are made of hard Granite rocks and softer rock called Gneiss which is more easily eroded. This is why the mountains are steeply sided. |
| Up until 1960, Re de Janeiro was Brazil's capital city and is located on the south-western shore of Guanabara Bay. |
| Rio de Janeiro is now populated by 6 million people and is the third largest city in South America. |
| Rio de Janeiro will host the Soccer World Cup in 2014 and be the first South American city to host the Olympic Games in 2016. |
| The cultural origins of the people who live in Rio de Janeiro, called cariocas is African, Caucasian (white), Portuguese, Spanish and Italian |
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