Paraúna is a municipality in southwestern Goiás state, Brazil. It has strange rock formations and is a large producer of cotton and soybeans. Location Highway connections with Goiânia are made by BR-060 / Abadia de Goiás / Guapó / Indiara / GO-320 / Jandaia. See Sepin for all the distances. Municipal boundaries: North: Aurilândia South: Jandaia East: São João da Paraúna West: Palestina de Goiás, Caiapônia, and Montividiu. Climate The climate is tropical, typical of medium elevations, with the dry period of the year occurring between July and October and the wet period occurring between November and March. The average elevation is above sea level. Political and Demographic Information Mayor: Sebastião Ferro de Moraes (January 2005) City council: 9 Eligible voters: 8,269 (December 2007) Population density: 2.89 inhabitants/km2 (2005) Urban population: 7,649 (2007) Rural population: 3,277 (2007) Population growth or loss: a loss of about 2,000 people since 1980 Economic information The economy is based on agriculture, cattle raising, services, public administration, and small transformation industries. Industrial units: 19 (2007) Commercial units: 92 (2007) Bank agencies: Banco Itaú S.A. - Banco do Brasil S.A. - BRADESCO S.A. Dairies: Paraúna Indústria e Comércio de Laticínios Ltda. - Lactouna Ind. e Com. de Leite e Derivados Ltda Meat processing plant: Pifpaf Motor vehicles: 1,072 automobiles and pickup trucks (2007), which gave a ratio of 10 inhabitants for each motor vehicle. In this calculation we did not count motorcycles, which were 717 in 2007. Cattle herd: 197,000 head (2006) Poultry: 84,000 (2006) Dairy cows: 17,740 (2006) Main crops (2006): cotton (9,880 hectares), rice, coffee, sugarcane, manioc, corn, and soybeans (62,000 hectares). See Sepin Agricultural data for 2006 Number of farms: 746 Total agricultural area: 254,548 ha. Planted area: 70,700 ha. Area of natural pasture: 129,973 ha. Number of persons employed in agriculture: 2,160 Education (2006) Schools: 1 with Students: 3,426 Higher education: none Adult literacy rate: 85.0% (2000) (national average was 86.4%) Health (2007) Hospitals: 1 Hospital beds: 41 Infant mortality rate: 25.29 (2000) (national average was 33.0) Tourism The municipality is one of the main tourist attractions in the state of Goiás. In the Serra do Caiapó immense stone walls extend for several kilometers. Inscriptions on the stone indicate to some the existence of a pre-Columbian civilization but to others the rocks are natural formations sculpted by the wind or the result of shaping caused by waves when this region was under