SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

Situated 760 meters (2500 feet) above sea level, the city of São Paulo, in the state of the same name, occupies an area of approximately 1500 square kilometers (580 square miles), where almost two-thirds of the land is urbanized and the rest rural. These two areas are known as Grande São Paulo (Greater São Paulo) and, with more than 15 million people, it has the largest population of any city in South America.

Pinheiros & Lapa

The old center, the suburbs, and a huge number of districts that make up this megalopolis all help to reveal the history of the city and its population. Initially inhabited by Native Americans and later by Portuguese colonists, the city received a considerable population of African slaves in the 17th Century, as did almost all the south, central and north-eastern regions of the country. Slaves provided the main source of manual labor for the coffee and sugar cane plantations. However, São Paulo's population, grew very slowly until the middle of the 19th Century. At this time, the area we now know as Greater São Paulo was still made up of small scattered... more