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Glossary

Rio de Janeiro

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New Bedford Whaling Museum Benjamin Russell

Rio de Janeiro, is the second largest city in Brazil. Located on the Atlantic coast, Rio de Janeiro is a strip of land, close to the Tropic of Capricorn. The shoreline is oriented east to west, on an inlet called Guanabara Bay. Rio has a tropical savanna climate with long periods of rain from December to March. It was a place of rest and replenishment for travelers who had been at sea for weeks. Rio lies on the plains of the western shore of Guanabara Bay. The bay was an area of fishing and whaling. As the city started to grow and become more metropolitan, a more regular supply of fresh water was essential. This is when the Carioca Aqueduct was planned. It took stone, brick, sand, lime, whale oil and two years of slave labor to build it. A section in Santa Teresa remains today.

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