sector of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, occupying a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. It is famous for its magnificent 2 ¹/₂-mile (4-km) curved beach. Skyscraper hotels, apartment houses, cafés, nightclubs, restaurants, theatres, and bars line the waterfront. Copacabana is almost a self-contained city; its traffic congestion has been progressively eased by the construction of tunnels and a subway system to connect it with other parts of Rio de Janeiro as well as by a major landfill project that reconstructed the beach beyond a substantially widened Avenida Atlantica. .