Chapada Diamantina

Declared in 1985, it protects a mountainous region that lived through a diamond rush in the 19th century, when thousands of prospectors came to the area drawn by the alluvial deposits of precious stones found in its rivers, giving rise to the town of Lençóis, today the gateway to the park, where colonial architecture from that golden age still stands. After the accessible deposits ran out, the region turned to ecotourism, celebrated today for its Poço Encantado and Poço Azul, caves with pools of extraordinary clarity and turquoise colour where sunlight filtering through openings in the rock creates almost unearthly optical effects at certain hours of the day.