The Sertão (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɛɦˈtɐ̃w̃], "outback" or "backcountry") is one of the four sub-regions of the northeast of Brazil. Originally the term referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia and South America that Lusitanian explorers encountered. In Brazil it referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century. A Brazilian historian once referred to colonial life in Brazil as a "civilization of crabs", as most settlers clung to the shoreline, with few trying to make inroads into the sertão. In modern terms, "sertão" refers to the semi-arid region in Northeastern Brazil comprising parts of the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, Maranhão, Piauí, and par