Unbelievable facts
Brazil and football are almost synonymous, as the 2014 FIFA World Cup is currently being held there.
But Brazil is not just about football, but with its unrivaled flora and fauna, architecture and beaches. Here are some interesting facts about this country.
1. The official name of Brazil is the Federative Republic of Brazil.
2. The word “Brazil” means “red as coals” and comes from the Portuguese “pau brasil”, a brazil tree that once grew in large numbers along the Brazilian coast, from which it was produced dark red paint. The Brazilian tree was valued by European traders from Portugal who came in the 16th century to trade with the Guarani people.
3. Brazil boasts 7,491 km of coastline. This is the longest continuous coast in the world.
4. The Portuguese called Brazil the “Land of the Holy Cross” (Terra do Santa Cruz); later traders simply called it “Terra do Brasil”.
Brazil: language, capital, flag
5. The official language in Brazil is Portuguese. However, more than 180 languages are spoken in the country. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in South America.
6. The country's slogan is “Ordem e Progresso”, which means “order and progress”.
7. On Brazil's modern flag, green represents Brazil's forests, the yellow diamond represents mineral wealth, and the blue circle and stars represent the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of November 15, 1889, when Brazil It was declared a republic.
8. Brasilia is now the capital of Brazil and the third capital since independence. Brasilia is a pre-planned city that took 41 months to build from 1956 to 1960.
The city was chosen by UNESCO in 1987 as the “historical and cultural heritage of humankind”. Rio de Janeiro was the capital for the previous 197 years.
9. Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of population (approximately 201 million people in an area of 8,514,877 square kilometers). It shares borders with all countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47 per cent of the continent.
Brazilian history
10. Brazil's official birthday is September 7, 1822, when Prince Pedro refused to return to Portugal. He declared independence by throwing down his sword and shouting: “Independence or death!” Brazil remained a monarchy until independence as a republic in 1889.
11. Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana became the first European to sail the entire Amazon from Peru to Brazil in 1541. He admired Indian female warriors who lived alone and later named them Amazons.
12. São Vicente, near São Paulo, is Brazil's oldest city and Portugal's first permanent settlement in America. It was founded in 1532.
13. A number of Nazis fled to Brazil after World War II, including Joseph Mengel, also known as the Angel of Death, who conducted brutal experiments and was interested in twins.
The high rate of twin births in Cândido Godoy, known as the “twin capital of the world”, is associated with the activities of a Nazi doctor.
Facts about Brazil
14. Brazilian cowboys are called gauchos. They live mainly in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the southern part of the country on the border between Uruguay and Argentina.
15. The people of Rio de Janeiro are called “carioca”.
16. The Amazon rainforest is the largest in the world, containing one-fifth of freshwater reserves, producing one-third of the Earth's oxygen. About 60 percent of the Amazon is located in Brazil.
17. Brazil's national dish is “feijoada” made from black beans with dried, salted or smoked meat.
18. Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world, at 73.6 percent of the total population.
19. Brazil's national drink is caipirinha, which consists of cachaça (sugarcane liqueur) mixed with sugar, ice, and lime slices.
20. The best beach in the world according to the famous travel site TripAdvisor is Baio do Sancho, which is located in Brazil.
Read also: The best beaches in the world
It is located on the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, which consists of 21 islands that form a marine park that attracts divers from all over the world to admire sea turtles, whales, sharp-toothed and reef sharks, clownfish, sea anemones and parrots.
21. Brazil's highest mountain, Cerro de la Neblina (“misty peak”), which is located on the border with Venezuela, is 2,994 meters above sea level. Because it is almost always hidden behind clouds, it was only discovered in the 1950s and first conquered in 1965, 12 years after Everest.
22. One of the world's best architects, Oscar Niemeyer, has designed more than 500 structures, most of which are in Brazil. One of the most famous buildings is the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which consists of 16 90-ton columns and a 20-meter bell tower, the entrance to which is located in an underground tunnel, and inside you can see three angels hung on steel cables.
23. Brazil has been the world's largest coffee exporter for the past 150 years, supplying about 80 per cent of the world's coffee in the 1920s. This figure has now fallen by a third.
24. Over the past year, tours to Brazilian slums, the so-called “favelas”, have been gaining popularity. One of the most famous favelas is Santa Maria in Rio de Janeiro, which has been visited by celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Beyoncé.
25. São Paulo has some of the world's worst traffic jams. Thus, on November 15, 2013, there was a record of a 309-kilometer queue around the city during rush hour. During the World Cup, an express line was opened that can transport 100,000 people per hour from the central station to the stadium.
26. The Amazon River is the largest river in the world in terms of volume of discharged water. About 209,000 cubic meters per second flows into the Atlantic Ocean, which is more than the seven largest rivers combined, and enough to fill Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world in less than 4 years. During the rainy season, the river is up to 48 km wide.
Brazil in brief
27. The most popular surname in Brazil is Silva.
28. The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro weighs 635 tons and is 38 meters high, including the pedestal. In 2007, it was named one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World”. It was damaged by lightning this year, and restoration could darken it due to a lack of replacement stone.
29. Brazil has more than 4,000 airports, more than any other country after the US.
30. According to 2007 data, there are at least 70 non-contact tribes in the Brazilian Amazon.
31. Brazil has 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Among the most famous is Iguazu National Park, home to one of the largest and most impressive waterfalls, 2.7 km wide, consisting of 275 individual waterfalls. It is home to several rare and endangered species, including a giant otter and a giant anteater.
32. About 1.5 to 2.5 million Brazilians are of Japanese descent. Many immigrants brought cherry trees with them, and cherry blossoms are often seen near homes in São Paulo and in public parks in Curitiba.
33. About 6 million tourists visit Brazil every year, half of them going to Rio de Janeiro.
34. Jardim Gramacho, the largest outdoor garbage dump, was once located in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, and closed in 2012.
35. Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, home to about 4 million species of plants and animals. It is home to more species of monkeys than any other country.
36. Rio de Janeiro became a World Heritage Site in 2012. The annual Carnival attracts about 2 million people every day.
Football in Brazil
37. Football was introduced to São Paulo by a young Englishman born in Brazil by Charles Miller in the early 20th century.
38. The most famous Brazilian footballer is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known worldwide as Pele.
39. The Brazilian National Football Championship lasts six months and includes up to 44 teams.
40. The giant Maracanã football stadium is the largest in Brazil and on the continent, and can accommodate 180,000 people.
41. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be held in 12 different Brazilian cities: Manaus, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Cuiabá, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.
42. Brazil has hosted the World Cup for the second time. The fourth World Cup was also held here in 1950.
43. The three-belt battleship Fuleco became the mascot of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The three-belted battleship is an endangered species native to Brazil, and its name is a combination of Futebol (football) and Ecologia (ecology).
44. Brazil is the most titled country, having been five times world football champion.