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Introduction
Brazil takes nearly the half of the whole continent. It borders on Venezuela in the north, on the atlantic ocean
in the east and north-east, on uruguay in the south, in the west it's Argentinia, Bolivia and Peru and
Coulumbia is the country it borders in the north-west.
With an area of 8.547.404 square kilometres Brazil is the fifth largest country on earth. Its capital is situated
in the interior. Brazil consists of 26 federal states.
Physical Geography
Brazil is devided in three nature areas. From the south to the north there's the brazilian highland, the lowland
of the amazon and the foothills of the highlands of Guayana. The brazilian highland in the south takes the
biggest part of the country.
The brazilian coast is 7490 kilometres long. There are some bays in the south which serve as natural
ports.There are for example the bays of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife.
Rivers and lakes
More than two thirds of Brazil are dewatered by the two rivers Amazon and Tocantins, about a fifth by Rio
de la plata an the rest by Sao Francisco and smaller flows. After the river Nile the river Amazon is with a
lenght of 6400 kilometres the second longest river worldwide.
Climate
The climate is in most regions of the country tropical. The temperature is about 22°C.
Population
Brazil has about 182 million inhabitants. The population all over the country is distributed unequally. About
82 per cent of the Brazilian people live in cities.
Important Cities
The capital Brasilia has got about 2,02 million inhabitants. The biggest city of brazil is Sao Paulo with a
population of 10,4 million inhabitants. Other important cities are for example the former capital Rio de
Janeiro and Salvador.
Language
The official language in Brazil is Portuguese, while Spanish is spoken in the remainig countries of south
america.
Religion
About 75 per cent of the brazilian population are Catholics. [A special characteristic of the brazilian
catholicism is ( ?ausgeprägter Heilenkult? )] . Protestants pose the second biggest denomination with 10 per
cent.
Sights
One of the most beautiful sights of Brazil is the Iguacu waterfall. The river of the same name falls on more
than 200 waterfalls up to 70 metres into the deep here.
An alley of about 1 kilometre shows the waterfall to the visitors in its whole beauty.
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