Gateway to Iguazu Falls — the world's widest waterfall system on the Brazil-Argentina border
Foz do Iguaçu is the Brazilian city at the Tri-Border Area where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet, and the gateway to Iguazu Falls — a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 275 individual cataracts stretching 2.7 km across the Iguazu River. The Brazilian side gives the widest panoramic view; the Argentine side offers the closest walk-through experience of the thundering Devil's Throat.
The falls were known to the Guaraní people as Yguazu (great waters) long before the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca described them in 1541. Foz do Iguaçu as a city grew rapidly after the construction of the Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River in 1984 — jointly owned by Brazil and Paraguay, it was at its completion the largest hydroelectric plant ever built and still generates 15% of all electricity consumed in Brazil.