Belo Horizonte is considered the third largest city in Brazil after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.  It has close to 3 million people in it's 17 municipalities.   "Belo Horizonte" translates to "Beautiful Horizon".

Belo Horizonte (or BH ), is located in a strategic area of the state of Minas Gerais, close to the other large centers of economic, political and social importance. The main highway distances from Belo Horizonte are: to Rio de Janeiro, 442 km, to São Paulo, 586 km, to Brasília, the country's capital, 720 km and to Salvador, in the state of Bahia, 1,355 km.
Belo Horizonte is widely known as Garden City because of its mild mountain climate. The average temperature varies between 10 to 32 degrees Celsius with an average of 21 degrees Celsius.

Belo Horizonte is a planned city was borne in December, 12, 1897, destined to be the capital of Minas Gerais State. Its designers forecast the new city would have 200,000 inhabitants on its 100th anniversary (last year).   The construction began in 1894 and the place chosen was a big farm known as "Curral D’El Rey", close to the "Curral Mountains", in the middle of the state.