City of the Sun — where Natal's Rio Grande do Norte coast has over 3,000 hours of sunshine per year (more than almost any city in South America), the Genipabu Dunes (the world's longest chain of coastal sand dunes) stretch 30 km north of the city for dune-buggy rides and sandboarding over Atlantic-wind-sculpted walls of white sand reaching 50 metres, Ponta Negra Beach's Morro do Careca (the 'Bald Head' dune that drops directly into the surf) is Brazil's most photographed natural coastal feature, and the Forte dos Reis Magos (built January 6 1598 — Epiphany, Three Kings Day) gave the city its name and is the oldest Portuguese fort in the Americas
Natal (900,000 city; metro 1.7 million) is the capital of Rio Grande do Norte state in northeastern Brazil — the closest Brazilian city to Europe and Africa (5,000 km to the Canary Islands, 2,800 km to Dakar), a geographic position that made it the single most strategic air base in the Western Hemisphere during WWII (the Parnamirim Field, 20 km south, was the largest Allied air base outside the US, processing 1,400 flights per week in the peak years 1943–1945). The city's economy today relies primarily on tourism (year-round beach season, sun 300+ days per year), renewable energy (the state i…
The Potiguar people (Tupi-speaking, the dominant people of the Rio Grande do Norte coast) inhabited the Natal area for thousands of years before European contact. The Portuguese established the Forte dos Reis Magos on January 6, 1598 (the feast of the Three Kings, Dia dos Reis Magos — 'Three Kings Day' — giving the city its name: 'Natal' is the Portuguese word for Christmas, but the fort's naming on Epiphany and the city's founding gave it the Christmas association). The Dutch West India Company occupied the city (1633–1654) — its longest occupation of any Brazilian city — and the Dutch perio…