Foz do Iguaçu

Foz do Iguaçu is a Brazilian city in the state of Paraná, standing where the Iguaçu River meets the Paraná and where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay come together. Its name is Portuguese for the mouth of the Iguazu, from a Guarani or Tupi word meaning big river. Roughly 650 km west of the state capital Curitiba, it is the westernmost city in Paraná and the seventh largest, with about 258,000 inhabitants known as iguaçuenses. The city sits beside Iguaçu Falls, a group of about 257 waterfalls chosen as one of the New Natural Seven Wonders of the World, and it forms a tri-national region with the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazú and the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este. Tourism, trade and services drive its economy, and about 80 nationalities live there, most numerously Italian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Chinese, Paraguayan and Argentine. The Itaipu Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world, lies at the city. The settlement was raised to a vila in 1910 and to a city in 1914, and its modern spelling dates from a 1945 orthographic agreement.