It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product GDP , and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte literally "Beautiful Horizon" , is a major urban and finance center in Latin America, and the sixth largest municipality in Brazil and its metropolitan area is the third largest in Brazil with just over 5.
With an area of , square kilometres , sq mi βlarger than Metropolitan France βit is the fourth largest state in Brazil. The landscape of the state is marked by mountains, [5] valleys, and large areas of fertile lands. Some of Brazil's most famous caves are located there. Two interpretations are given for the origin of the name Minas Gerais. The first interpretation is that the name simply means "General Mines", with the word Gerais serving as an adjective to the mines, which were themselves spread in several spots around a larger region.
The second interpretation is that this ignores the two large geographical spaces which conformed the state in its history: the region of the mines Minas , and the region of the Gerais "Matos Gerais" or "Campos Gerais", which means something close to "General Fields". It also shares a short boundary with the Federal District northwest. It is larger in area than Metropolitan France or Spain. The state also holds many hydroelectric power plants, including Furnas.
The state also has huge reserves of iron and sizeable reserves of gold and gemstones, including emerald , topaz and aquamarine mines.
Emeralds found in this location are comparable to the best Colombia-origin emeralds, and are most often a bluish-green color. Each region of the state has a distinct character, geographically and to a certain extent culturally. Serra da Mantiqueira. Serra da Canastra National Park. According to the modern geographic classification by Brazil's National Institute of Geography and Statistics IBGE , which succeeded the division in mesoregions and microregions , the state is now divided in 13 intermediate geographic regions , each one divided in immediate geographic regions 70 total in the whole state :.
