Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio is the second-most populous city in Brazil with a population more than 6 million. Rio was once the capital of the Portuguese monarchy from 1808 to 1822, which is rare in history that the capital of a colonising country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of Brazil until 1960 when the capital was moved to Brasilia. Rio de Janeiro literally means January river in English. It is so named it was thought to be a river mouth instead of a cove when Portuguese explorers found here in January 1502. Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is selected as one of the top 3 harbour cities in the world. It has been developed a unique Rio cultural style from a combination of carnival, samba, bossa nova, balneario beaches, Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain and numerous slums
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