Porto Velho (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpoʁtu ˈvɛʎu], Old Port) is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin.

After the railroad was completed, the local population was about one thousand inhabitants; its buildings were chiefly the railway's installations and the wooden houses of the Caribbean (mainly Barbadian) workers - hence the name of the town's largest district by then, "Bajan Hill" or "Barbados Town", nowadays called the "Alto do Bode".

Cities like Santo Antônio do Madeira, which had a tram line and a weekly newspaper by the time of Porto Velho's foundation, are still nothing but ruins to this day.

Once the Allied forces lost control of Malaysian rubber, the Amazon's was needed again due to the war effort.

Porto Velho's modern history begins with the discovery of cassiterite around the city, and of gold on the Madeira River, at the end of the 1950s.

In addition, the government's decision to allow large cattle farms in the territory began a trend of migration into the city.

Almost one million people moved to Rondônia, and Porto Velho's population increased to three hundred thousand.

[vague] The Catedral Metropolitana Sagrado Coração de Jesus is the cathedral archiepiscopal see of a Latin Catholic jurisdiction that started on May 1, 1925.

[8] According to the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), between 1961 and 1990 the lowest temperature recorded in Porto Velho was 7.4 °C or 45.3 °F in July 1975,[9] and the highest reached 40.9 °C or 105.6 °F in August 1969.

[21] It holds all of the strictly protected 87,412 hectares (216,000 acres) Serra dos Três Irmãos Ecological Station.

[23] It also contains part of the 221,218 hectares (546,640 acres) Jacundá National Forest, a sustainable use conservation unit.

The presence of Porto Velho Air Force Base ensures considerable movement of military aircraft.

As for handicrafts, there are various exhibitions of indigenous works, utilities and adornment using raw materials like clay, vines, bamboo and rubber.

[citation needed] The Carnival takes place every year, attracting a large number of people from other cities and neighboring states of Rondônia.

Besides the first locomotive brought to the Amazon, the Coronel Church, there is also a 'stork and a tricycle', used to transport the line foremen who checked lathes, machines, furniture, as well as photographs of workers, books, documents and more.

Original paintings of a religious nature inside the cathedral, were executed by Father Angelo Cerri and Alfonso Liguori.

All clubs share the one stadium in the city, the Aluizão, named after Aluízio Ferreira, with a smaller ground Saldanão also available.