Salvador is notable in Brazil for its cuisine, music and
architecture, and its metropolitan area is the wealthiest in
Brazil's Northeast, its poorest region. Over 80% of the
population of metropolitan region of Salvador has Black African
ancestry, the African influence in many cultural aspects of the
city makes it the center of Afro-Brazilian culture and this
reflects in turn a curious situation in which African-associated
cultural practices are celebrated. The historical center of
Salvador, frequently called the Pelourinho, is renowned for its
Portuguese colonial architecture with historical monuments
dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries and has been
declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.Salvador is
located on a small, roughly triangular peninsula that separates
Todos os Santos Bay from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
The bay, which gets its name from having been discovered on All
Saints' Day forms a natural harbor. Salvador is a major export
port, lying at the heart of the Recôn