Rio de Janeiro Harbour is located on the south-western shore of Guanabara Bay, which
is surrounded by the city of Rio along a strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean
and the mountains: Sugar Loaf Mt, Corcovado Peak, and the hills of Tijuca. The harbour
was formed by the Atlantic Ocean which wore out the soil and rocks along the coast.
The naked and lopsided mountain called Pao de Acucar evoked the sugarloaves fashioned
on the island of Madeira, guarding the entrance to the bay. The highest mountain
was called Corcovado “the hunchback” due to its humped profile. Nowadays a statue
of Christ the Redeemer crowns the 2,300 foot-high peak.
The geology of this amazing place is admired by people who said: “God made the world
in six days and on the seventh, he concentrated on Rio”. Its climate is wonderful
and the beaches are free to everyone.
History
Harbour of Rio de Janeiro
Portuguese explorers named the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro as “the River of the First
of January” because they were convinced that they had reached the mouth of a great river, when they gliding toward a narrow opening in the coastline on the New Year’s
Day, 1502. They found beyond this entrance lay a body of water stretching 20 miles
inland. French established a colony in 1555, but were expelled, so the population
increased and the city grew larger. In 1960, the capital was changed to Brazilia.
Tamoio people named Guanabara or the “arm of the sea” so nearly five centuries later,
both the native and European names persist. The large waterway was not a river;
it was an island-studded bay that holds a roaring metropolis. Times ago it was a
tropical wilderness teeming with tapirs and jaguars. And now, instead of caravels
and dugouts, super-tankers and yachts glide across the magnificent balloon-shaped
harbour of Guanabara Bay.
Today, the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro and the beaches are crowded and in some instances
are polluted, but the natural beauty of Brazil’s mountains by the bay is unquestionable.