Rio de Janeiro city information and city guide

Imagine the next time you join a discussion about Rio de Janeiro city information. When you start sharing the fascinating Rio de Janeiro city information facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

Most of this information comes straight from the Rio de Janeiro city information pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you'll know what they know.

The scenic Rio de Janeiro is the second important city of Brazil. Once the capital of the country, from 1763 to 1960 and the Portuguese capital from 1808 to 1821, the famous city of Rio de Janeiro is well-known as “A Cicade Maravilhosa” or “The Marvelous City”. Rio de Janeiro is one of the most popular cities of the world known for its breathtaking natural beauties, its vibrant Carnival celebrations, its unique samba and other forms of music and the striking tourist beaches like Ipanema and Copacabana, lined with numerous famous hotels.


One of the most interesting sites in this Brazilian city is the famous statue of “Christ the Redeemer” over the Corcovado mountain. This enormous statue at Rio de Janeiro has been just declared as a New Seven Wonders of the World. The Maracana Stadium also happens to be one of the most popular attractions in this city being among the biggest football stadiums in the world. Rio is also home to two biggest forests within a metropolitan area, these forests being the White Stone State Park or the Parque Estadual de Pedra Branca, and the Tijuca Forest or the Floresta da Tijuca.

On the 20th of January in 1502, the Portuguese explorers on their expedition guided by Gaspar de Lemos, arrived at the Guanabara Bay. Rio de Janeiro was thus named “January River”. According to a famous legend, the place was named like these by the mariners as they considered the bay’s mouth to be a river’s mouth. This city, covering almost 1,182.3 square km of area, holds a population of near about 12 million, the citizens being called Cariocas. Rio de Janeiro enjoys a tropical climate and temperature here remains at an average of 40°C in the inner parts of the city, 21°C being the minimum average temperature and 27°C being the maximum mean temperature.


The annual mean temperature here is near about 23.7°C and the average annual precipitation at Rio is 1173 mm. Portuguese is the official language at the schools in Rio de Janeiro. But Spanish and English are also included in the official curriculum at the high schools. Some of the most prominent universities and colleges at Rio de Janeiro include Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade do Grande Rio and Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. “Cicade Maravilhosa” is the “civic anthem” or official song of Rio de Janeiro which has remained the mostly sung song during the carnival at Rio in the month of February every year. The famous Carnival of Rio, including the parades, is the most important cultural event in the city that attracts people from every part of the world to be part of it. The major means of transportation in Rio are the buses and the flights operated to and from the five airports in the city. The commuter rail lines and the highways also play a major role in accessing the different parts of the city.

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