Brazil's highest mountain, the Pico da Neblina (3,014 m) is located in the Brazilian Highlands, northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

The Iguazu Waterfall, shared between Brazil and Argentina, is one of the largest waterfalls in the world.

The Amazon Rainforest is located in nine countries; sixty percent is in Brazil.

Cave paintings, which are twenty-five thousand years old, can be seen in the Serra da Capivara National Park

In 1494 Portugal and Spain agreed the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided newly discovered lands in the New World.

In 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil whilst en route to India.

Brazil is the only Portuguese speaking Latin American country.

Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish explorer, sailed down the Amazon in 1542.

Tens of thousands of Amerindians died from diseases like smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, typhoid, dysentery and influenza, caught from European settlers and African slaves.

Slavery was officially abolished in Brazil in 1888.

The new constitution of 1934 gave women in Brazil the right to vote before European countries such as France and Switzerland.

Carmen Miranda, although born in Portugal, was raised in Brazil and became a famous singer in the 1930s and appears in many pictures with a headdress made of fruit!

Bossa Nova is a style of music developed from the jazz of the 1950s combined with a samba rhythm.

The Lambada is a rhythmic dance based on the samba and merengue and is also popular in Europe and North America.

Copacabana Beach is the famous beach resort at Rio de Janeiro, and forms part of the 50 miles of coastline around Rio.

Brazil won their fifth FIFA World Cup Championship in 2002. Ronaldo, who scored the two goals in the match against Germany, scored a total of eight goals during the finals winning the Adidas Golden Shoe Award.

In 1992 the World Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, which is now known as the Rio Earth Summit, to set international targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental initiatives.

The Amazon rainforest is a vital carbon store; deforestation is a major concern.

In November 2008 about a hundred people died and thousands were driven from their homes in flooding in Santa Catarina.

In 2012 Brazil passed a law meant to protect forests and force farmers to replant trees on illegally cleared land.

The worst fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforests since 2010 were suffered in 2019.