Природные богатства и ландшафты юго-восточного Бразилии.

The landscape of the State is marked by mountains, valleys and caverns. In the Serra do Cipó, Sete Lagoas, Cordisburgo and Lagoa Santa, the caves and waterfalls. Minas Gerais is the source of some of the biggest rivers in Brazil, most notably the São Francisco, the Paraná and to a lesser extent, the Rio Doce. The state also holds many hydroelectric power plants, including Furnas dam. Some of the highest peaks in Brazil are in the mountain ranges in the southern part of the state, such as Serra da Mantiqueira and Serra do Cervo, which mark the border between Minas and its neighbors São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The most notable one is the Pico da Bandeira, the third highest mountain in Brazil at 2890 m, standing on the border with Espírito Santo state. The state also has huge reserves of iron and sizeable reserves of gold and gemstones, including emerald, topaz and aquamarine mines.

The state is part of the Mata Atlântica biome, and its topography comprises both mountains and plains, located between the Mantiqueira Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. Its coast is carved by the bays of Guanabara, Sepetiba and Ilha Grande. There are prominent slopes near the ocean, also featuring diverse environments, such as restinga vegetation, bays, lagoons and tropical forests. Rio de Janeiro is the smallest state in the Southeast macroregion and one of the smallest in Brazil. It has, however, the third longest coastline in the country (second only to Bahia's and Maranhão's), extending 635 kilometers.

With a 46.180 square kilometers, it is about the size of Estonia, or half the size of Portugal, and has a variety of habitats including coastal plains, lakes, mountain forest, mangroves and many others. The main river in the state is the Doce. Other important river basins include the Santa Maria River Basin which is the northern branch of rivers which join the sea at Vitoria, and Jucu River Basin which flows into the sea at roughly the same place, but corresponds to the southern branch (which seems to come out of Vitoria). Espírito Santo's climate is tropical along the coast, with dry winters and rainy summers. North of Doce River it's generally drier and also hot. In the mountainous regions in the south and south west of the state, the tropical climate is strongly influenced by altitude, and the average temperatures are colder. The state can be divided into two areas: the low lying coastline and the highland area known as Serra (where one can find the 2.890 m Pico da Bandeira mountain), which is part of the larger Serra do Caparaó, the Caparaó Mountain Range. In the map to the right it is in the gray area in the extreme southwest of the state, and is shared with Minas Gerais.

Ethnic Group/Race (IBGE/2022) %White49.9%Mixed 38.7%Black10.6%Asian0.7%Indigenous0.1%

The livestock also has great prominence in the region. The Southeast is the second national producer of milk, with 34.2%, slightly losing compared to the South Region, which produces 35.7%. The southeast has the largest herd of cows milked: 30.4% of the total of 17.1 million existing in Brazil. The highest productivity, however, is that of the Southern Region, with an average of 3,284 liters per cow per year, which is why it has led the milk production ranking since 2015. Minas Gerais is the main milk producing state in Brazil with the largest it is also effective for milked cows, responsible for 26.6% of production and 20.0% of all animals in milk. The municipality of Patos de Minas was the second largest producer in 2017, with 191.3 million liters of milk. Poultry farming and egg production are the most important in the country. Flocks of poultry, according to IBGE, include chickens, roosters, hens and chicks. In 2018, the South region, with an emphasis on the creation of chickens for slaughter, was responsible for almost half of the Brazilian total (46.9%). Paraná only represented 26.2%. However, the situation is reversed when it comes to chickens. The first region in the ranking was the Southeast, with 38.9% of the country's total capital. A total of 246.9 million hens was estimated for 2018. The state of São Paulo was responsible for 21.9%. The national production of chicken eggs was 4.4 billion dozen in 2018. The Southeast region was responsible for 43.8% of the total produced. The state of São Paulo was the largest national producer (25.6%), with a total of 16.8 million birds. The Southeast is responsible for 64%, highlighting São Paulo (24.6%) and Espírito Santo (21.0%).

In mineral production, in 2017, Minas Gerais was the country's largest producer of iron (277 million tons worth R $37.2 billion), gold (29.3 tons for a value of R $3.6 billion), zinc (400 thousand tons for a value of R $351 million) and niobium (in the form of hydrochloride) (131 thousand tons for a value of R $254 million). In addition, Minas was the second largest producer of aluminum (bauxite) (1.47 million tons at a value of R $105 million), third of manganese (296 thousand tons to a value of R $32 million) and 5th of tin (206 tons worth R $4.7 million). Minas Gerais had 47.19% of the value of the production of minerals marketed in Brazil (first place), with R $41.7 billion. The state has the largest production of various gemstones in the country. In aquamarine, Minas Gerais produces the most valuable stones in the world. In diamond, Brazil was the world's largest producer of diamonds from 1730 to 1870, mining occurred for the first time in the Serra da Canastra, region of Diamantina, even lowering the price of stone in everyone due to excess production. Minas Gerais continues to extract diamonds, in addition to having larger or smaller scale productions of agate, emerald, garnet, jasper, amethyst, and sapphire. Topaz and tourmaline stand out. Imperial Topaz, a valued variety of topaz, is only found in Ouro Preto. Brazil is the world's leading producer of topaz. It is also one of the world's largest tourmaline producers.

Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. English and Spanish are also part of the official high school curriculum. French is also widely studied.

The Southeast Brazilian region is highly covered by Paved roads – due to the policy in the Brazil's economy in the 1960s (automobilization of the country) – which led to the car's manufacturing to be a major industry not only in the region but in Brazil as well. The Southeast's highways are generally in good or very good conditions – some exceptions are made to the southern parts of the BR 101. Railways are present as well (and also, the region is more covered than any other region), but mainly for freight transport – soy beans and iron ore, mainly, from the farms and mines to the seaports. Also, a very complicated hydrocanal system is present in the region, with ten major dams. Health care and education are of major concern in the larger cities, but in smaller ones, the population are generally well looked after.