Serra do Caparaó is a Brazilian mountain range located between the states of

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attracti ...

and

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

Toponym

"Caparaó" is a tupi word, the etymology of which is unclear: it may come from ''capara-oca'' (house made with capara, a twisted shrub) or from ''caá-apara-ó'' (trench made of twisted shrubs).Benedito, Mouzar: ''Paca, Tatu, Cutia!: Glossário ilustrado de Tupi''

Geography

Pico da Bandeira Pico da Bandeira, or Bandeira Peak ( Portuguese for ''Flag Peak'', ), is the third highest mountain in Brazil, situated on the border of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais states. It is the highest point in both states. It was considered the hig ...

(2892 m) is the highest point in the region. Other peaks also worth mentioning are: Pico do Calçado ("Shoe Peak", 2849 m), Pico do Cristal ("Crystal Peak", 2770 m) and Morro da Cruz do Negro ("Blackman's Cross Mountain", 2658 m). The region is place for Brazil's second largest

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

, after Serra do Imeri, and the largest gap or

prominence In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

(997 m). The Caparaó Mountains are mostly covered with Atlantic Forest, the preservation of which was guaranteed with the creation in May 1961 of the

Caparaó National Park Caparaó National Park () is a national park created in 1961 to protect the Caparaó Mountains, located on the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states in Brazil. Pico da Bandeira, one of the highest mountains in Brazil Braz ...

Climate

The lowest temperatures of both neighbouring states occur in this region; in Winter,

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

occurs almost daily and the average low is −5 °C at

, dropping as low as −10 °C.

History

In the years 1966–67, the region was the hiding place for the left-wing

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

group , who fought the

Brazilian military government The military dictatorship in Brazil (), occasionally referred to as the Fifth Brazilian Republic, was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against presid ...

References

Caparao {{MinasGerais-geo-stub