Sete Cidades is a small 62-sq-km national park with bizarre rock formations that some have claimed are sete cidades (seven cities) left behind by some mysterious long-departed culture (aliens, Vikings etc). The place doesn’t need such fantasies to make it worth visiting.
The rock formations are indeed fantastic – some look like giant turtle shells, others resemble a castle, an elephant, a map of Brazil or the head of emperor Dom Pedro II – and there are also superb vistas over a landscape that combines caatinga (semi-arid land) and cerrado (savanna) vegetation. There are some 1500 intriguing rock paintings between 3000 and 5000 years old, wildlife that includes marmosets, small rodents called mocós (cavies) that like to pose for photos, tarantulas and (we’re told) rattlesnakes, and two delectable natural bathing pools.
