| Flag of Mato Grosso
|
| See other Brazilian States
|
| Capital
| Cuiabá
|
| Largest City
| Cuiabá
|
| Area
| 906,806.9 km²
|
Population - Total - Density
| 2,375,549 2.6 inh./km²
|
| Governor
| Blairo Maggi(PPS)
|
| Demonym
| Mato-grossense
|
| HDI (2000)
| 0.773 – medium
|
| Timezone
| GMT-4
|
| ISO 3166-2 | BR
|
Mato Grosso (pron. IPA: //) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the western part of the country.
Neighboring states are (from west clockwise) Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders Bolivia to the southwest.
The name literally means "thick jungle".
Apart from the state capital, Cuiabá, there are few cities. The most important are
See also:
Mato Grosso is the site of some of the worst deforestation in the world.
Geography
The state contains the swamps of the
Pantanal and the
Planalto do Mato Grosso. It also contains the
Mato Grosso Plateau. Started in the
1970s, the Transpantaneira is a bare-earth highway which was originally planned to cross the Pantanal, but it was never finished and is now mostly used for touristic tours. Mato Grosso is an essentially agrarian state, with economy based on
cattle-raising. The
Chapada do Guimarães National Park is located in the state. The
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (
UFMT) is spread out all over the state with 4 campuses, 5 distance education centers, one experimental farm, one research base at the Pantanal, the University Hospital and 10 teaching advanced posts. The University is led by Rector Paulo Speller since 2000, who should stay in office up to 2008.
History
In
1977 the state was split into two halves, with Mato Grosso do Sul becoming a new state. The
Bororo Indians live in the Mato Grosso area.
Mato Grosso is also the state in Brazil in which the most deforestation of Brazil's portion of the Amazon Rainforest has taken place.
Flag
The flag has the same colors as the national flag, with blue symbolizing the sky, green the vegetation, and white standing for peace. The star is yellow to symbolize the
gold which attracted the first settlers. The flag was adopted by Decree No. 2 of
January 31,
1890, just few days after the adoption of the national flag. The Mato Grosso state flag was abolished by Law No. 1.046 of
October 8,
1929, but reinstated by article 140 of the Constitution of the State of Mato Grosso on
July 11,
1947.
External links
States of Brazil | Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato-Groso | Mato Grosso | Mato Groso - Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | מאטו גרוסו | მატუ-გროსუ | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso | Мату-Гросу | Мату Гросу | Mato Grosso | Mato Grosso