Corumbá

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Coordinates: 19°00′32″S, 57°39′10″W
Corumbá
Image:Corumbá.jpg
Nickname: "Capital do Pantanal (in English: Capital of Pantanal); Cidade Branca (in English: White City)"
Location in Brazil
Country	Brazil
Region	Center-West
State	Mato Grosso do Sul
Founded	1778
Government
- Mayor	Ruiter Cunha de Oliveira (Worker's Party)
Area
- City	65,000 km² (25,096.6 sq mi)
Elevation	118 m (387 ft)
Population (2006)
- City	101,000
- Density	1.60/km² (4.1/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC -4 (UTC)
Website: [www.corumba.ms.gov.br]

Coordinates: 19°00′32″S, 57°39′10″W Corumbá is a city in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, 425 km Southwest of Campo Grande, the state's capital. It has a population of approximately 101.000 inhabitants, and its economy is based mainly in agriculture, animal husbandry, mineral extraction, and tourism, being the gateway to the biggest wetlands of the world, Pantanal.

Founded as a military outpost and colony in 1778, it became strategically important with the opening of the Paraguay River to international trade after the War of the Triple Alliance (1865–70). Nearby are the buttes of Urucum Mount, which contain vast mineral deposits.

[edit] Urbanization

Corumbá is consisted of two areas. The lower area is where the old village of notable architecture is set, close to the port. The upper area, newer and much bigger, is chessboard-shaped. In the urbanistic point of view, it is not similar with the other old Brazilian cities, where the predominant architetural style is the colonial romantic Portuguese one. Its architecture is Italian neoclassical, the same of central Asunción, the old suburbs of Buenos Aires, the towns of the countryside of the Uruguay and the majority of the southwestern Rio Grande do Sul. Its urbanization rate is very high, reaching around 90%. In the recent years, due to a better quality of life, the population is aging and the fertility rate is decreasing.