Current Time in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil

Foz do Iguaçu stands at the western tip of the Brazilian state of Parana, where the Iguaçu River joins the Parana and where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. Around two hundred and sixty thousand people live in the city, which functions as one of South America's great border crossroads and as the gateway to two of the continent's most remarkable sights.

The first is the Iguaçu Falls. Some fifteen kilometres upstream from the city the river spreads out and then plunges over a horseshoe of basalt cliffs in around two hundred and seventy separate cascades, up to eighty metres high and stretching for nearly three kilometres through subtropical rainforest. The greatest of them, the Devil's Throat, sends up a permanent cloud of spray. Protected on the Brazilian side by the Iguaçu National Park, a World Heritage Site, and matched by an equivalent park in Argentina, the falls were named one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature and receive millions of visitors a year. Walkways, a panoramic trail, boat trips into the spray and helicopter flights give different perspectives, and the forest around them shelters coatis, toucans, capuchin monkeys and, rarely seen, jaguars.

The second is the Itaipu Dam, built jointly by Brazil and Paraguay across the Parana and completed in the 1980s. Nearly eight kilometres long and among the largest hydroelectric plants ever constructed, it has repeatedly set world records for annual electricity generation and supplies a substantial share of the power used by both countries. Guided tours run through the machine halls and along the crest of the dam, and the spillway is spectacular when open.

The city itself grew from a small military and rubber-trading outpost founded at the end of the nineteenth century into a modern tourist centre. Bridges lead directly to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, and the constant movement of shoppers, traders and travellers has produced a genuinely international population, with more than seventy nationalities represented. A large Lebanese and Arab community built one of the most impressive mosques in Latin America, and there are Chinese, Japanese, Paraguayan and Argentine communities alongside Brazilians from every state. The Buddhist temple, the Marco das Tres Fronteiras with its obelisk overlooking the river junction, and the Parque das Aves, a bird park with walk-through aviaries of toucans and macaws, complete the visitor circuit.

Tourism, energy and cross-border trade drive the economy. An international airport sits beside the national park, and a federal highway links the city to Curitiba and the coast.

The Federal University of Latin American Integration, founded here in 2010, brings students from across the continent to study in Portuguese and Spanish, reinforcing the city's role as a meeting point.

Few places combine natural spectacle, engineering and cultural mixture as completely as Foz do Iguaçu.