portuguese settlers named the mountain 'pão de açúcar' due to its appearance - during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the peak of the sugarcane cycle in brazil, raw sugar was refined through a series of heating and filtering processes.

the last phase involved pouring the sugar into inverted conical, or cone-shaped, clay molds called 'sugarloaves' resembling the natural structure, which reaches out into the atlantic ocean and stands just shy of 400 meters tall - the sugar could then be stored and transported with ease.