Unaí

Unaí is a municipality in the Northern Region of Minas Gerais, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located 590 km from the capital of Minas Gerais and 164 km from the federal capital. Unaí is the main municipality of its micro-region of the same name and, together with Paracatu, the most important city of the said mesoregion of Minas Gerais. Due to its geopolitical location, because it is geographically and politically linked to Brasilia and politically to Belo Horizonte, the municipality has a strong economic dynamism for a municipality that still carries the typically mineiro custom.Its population is of 83,448 inhabitants according to estimates of the census of the IBGE of 2016 and is one of the less populous municipalities of the state but with one of the greater commuting migrations daily of the region.HistoryIn the municipality of Unai, there is the archaeological site Cave Gentile II, which records traces of hunter-gatherer peoples of more than 10,000 years, and gardeners people of almost 4000 years, they grew, according abundant plant remains: Corn, peanuts, pumpkin and gourd. In the city, it has the record of the oldest Brazilian ceramics outside the Amazon, dated 3500 years.At the time of arrival of the first Europeans to Brazil, the central portion of Brazil was occupied by indigenous Macro-Ge linguistic trunk, as acroás, the xacriabás, the Xavante, the Kayapo, the Javaés, among others povos.Over the centuries XVI, XVII and XVIII, numerous expeditions composed of Portuguese descent (called Scouts) swept the region in search of gold, precious stones and hand indigenous slave labor.