Pedra da Gavea

Pedra da Gavea is a granite and gneiss monolith rising about 844 meters directly above the Atlantic coastline in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, within Tijuca National Park, formed from the same ancient igneous and metamorphic rock complex, roughly 600 million years old, that produced Sugarloaf Mountain and the granite peaks surrounding the city. As with other exposed granite bodies in the region, prolonged erosion of the surrounding weaker rock left the resistant granite-gneiss mass standing as a sheer-faced monolith, its near-vertical seaward cliff carved further by exfoliation and by the erosive effect of Atlantic winds and rain over millions of years. At roughly 844 meters, it is one of the tallest coastal monoliths in the world, and its dramatic profile, sometimes said to resemble a human face in silhouette, has made it a prominent landmark on Rio's skyline.