Religion in Paraguay the Alto Parana department, the capital of which is Ciudad del Este. There are also communities in Asunción and Itapua (the capital of which is Encarnación). As in other parts of Latin America, many of these are descended from immigrants from Syria and Lebanon, though some may also be from Bangladesh and Pakistan The Bahá'í Faith in Paraguay begins after `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, mentioned the country in 1916. Paraguayan Maria Casati was the first to join the religion in 1939 when living in Buenos Aires. The first pioneer to settle in Paraguay was Elizabeth Cheney late in
Geography of Paraguay Paraná; the mountain chain has an average height of . Separated from the Eastern region by the Paraguay River, the Chaco region is a vast plain with elevations reaching no higher than and averaging . Covering more than 60 percent of Paraguay's total land area, the Chaco plain slopes gently eastward to the Río Paraguay. The Paraguayan Chaco is subdivided into two parts. The "Alto Chaco" (Upper Chaco), also called "Chaco Seco" (Dry Chaco) is the western three-quarters of the region, bordering on Bolivia, while the "Bajo Chaco" (Lower Chaco) or "Chaco Húmedo" (Humid Chaco) borders on the Paraguay River.