Copacabana

Copacabana beach is just one of Rio de Janeiro's many attractions and draws numerous tourists to this Brazilian city.

Copacabana, sector of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, occupying a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. It is famous for its magnificent 2 1/2-mile (4-km) curved beach. Skyscraper hotels, apartment houses, cafés, nightclubs, restaurants, theaters, and bars line the waterfront. Copacabana is almost a self-contained city; its traffic congestion has been progressively eased by the construction of tunnels and a subway system to connect it with other parts of Rio de Janeiro as well as by a major landfill project that reconstructed the beach beyond a substantially widened Avenida Atlantica.