Sugarloaf Mountain, Brazil

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Coordinates: 22°56′55″S, 43°09′26″W

Sugarloaf as seen from the hilltop neighborhood of Santa Teresa

Sugarloaf at dawn with cloud layer partially obsuring cable car facility

This article is about Rio de Janeiro's peak. For the Brazilian retailing company, known as Grupo Pão de Açúcar, see Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição. For the city in Alagoas state in Brazil, see Pão de Açúcar, Alagoas.

Sugarloaf Mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar), is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 meters (1,300 ft) above sea-level, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. This may, however, be a folk-etymology, since it is believed by some that the name actually derives from Pau-nh-acuqua (“high hill”) in the Tupi-Guarani language, as used by the indigenous Tamoios.

The mountain is only one of half a dozen monolithic morros of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-paneled cablecar (in popular Portuguese, bondinho - more properly called teleférico), capable of holding 75 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Babilônia and Urca every half hour. The original cablecar line was built in 1912. So familiar is this peak, the mere sight of it in a film is sufficient to establish the setting as Rio.

[edit] External links

• Official site (in Portuguese, English version is under construction)
• Sugarloaf Vintage Postcards