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Belo horizonte
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belo horizonte (enc)
belo horizonte (dict)
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Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the 4th largest city in Brazil coming after Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. You'll find this city at about 2/3 of the way from Brasilia to Rio. It is the capital of Minas Gerais state. The name means Beautiful Horizon. The city of Belo Horizonte was completely built on a plan corresponding to that of Washington D.C., with a very long highway circling the whole city. Belo is build on several hills and completely surrounded by mountains. The constant rising and falling of the streets sometimes makes navigation a bit tricky, but the wide avenues lined with trees are always easy guidelines. Unfortunately, the growth of the population has been bigger than anticipated 100 years ago. So there's a lot of poorly build architecture and slums, but also still some excellent colonial buildings. You should not miss the fin-de siecle buildings around the Praca da Liberdade and the market on Av Afonso Pena, each sunday. Located about 100 kms from Belo Horizonte you will find the charming city of Ouro preto (which means ‘Black Gold’), a colonial city with great churches and impressive pieces of work.
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