Paraíba

Related Category: Latin American and Caribbean Physical Geography

or Paraíba do Sul(d sl), river, c.650 mi (1,050 km) long, rising as the Paraitinga in the Serra do Mar, São Paulo state, SE Brazil. It flows southwesterly to a point NE of São Paulo city where it makes a hairpin turn and continues in a northeasterly direction through the state of Rio de Janeiro to the Atlantic Ocean near Campos. Below Três Rios it flows through a gorge on the Rio de Janeiro–Minas Gerais border. Its beautiful valley forms a rich agricultural region (site of Brazil's first commercial coffee plantation) as well as a major industrial center of Brazil. The river is used for irrigation, transport, and power generation.