|
- Rio Grande do Norte:
Official website: http://www.rn.gov.br
Capital: Natal
Area: 53,306 km2
Important cities: Mossoró, Parnamirim, Ceará-Mirim
Climate in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
The French invaded the region early in the 16th century; in 1597, to guarantee the possession, the Portuguese sent a mission to start to buil a fortress on the banks
of river Potengi.
That fortress was finished on Dec. 25th 1598, and, in reference to the date, the village around it was called Natal (Natal is the Portuguese word for Christmas).
Later on, the Dutch invaded the fortress and stayed from 1633 to 1654, when the Portuguese reclaimed it, helped by local indians.
Differently from other northeastern regions, Rio Grande do Norte didn't have a soil proper for sugar cane plantation; the capitany/province/state participated in
several rebelions.
The sea waters off the coast are very salty, and the salt industry grew in the 20th century. In the 1970s, petroleum was found and boosted the economy (until today,
the state is the biggest producer of petroleum on land in Brazil).
More recently, Natal is turning to tourism. Natal is sunny, has several beaches and is much less violent than the southern Brazilian cities.
- Physical Geography:
The geographycal profile of the State is composed of two morphologic areas: the Serra da Borborema, a mountain chain which starts in Minas Gerais and cuts through Bahia,
Alagoas, Pernambuco and Paraíba, before reaching Rio Grande do Norte; and the low lands, which cover all the remaining area of the State.
In the other States, the Borborema is a physical separation between the humid littoral and the arid sertão; the presence of Borborema creates a transition zone, called
agreste, where climate and vegetation have mixed features of the extremes. In Rio Grande do Norte, the Borborema doesn´t go all the way across (it goes past the border
with Paraíba, but doesn´t reach the Atlantic); this fact causes that, differently from most States in northeast, the profile littoral-agreste-sertão is not present in Rio
Grande do Norte so, the only climates in the State are the tropical humid, in the eastern coast
Back to Basics
|
|