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MADEIRA
The Madeira archipelago comprises the main island of Madeira, its smaller neighbour of Porto Santo, and the uninhabited protected sanctuaries of the Desertas and Selvagens islands. They were discovered by chance in 1418
by a Portuguese mariner, Gonçalves Zarco, who came upon the island of Porto Santo after his boat was blown off course by powerful
winds off the coast of Morocco.
After the discoverer came ashore on Porto Santo island he was observant enough to notice an unusually dense accumulation of clouds to the west. His spirit of discovery led him to find the precious jewel of the island of Madeira. Named after the Portuguese word for wood - the island was thick with trees and became an important resource for timber - used especially in the latter years of the fifteenth century for ship building. Indeed, Madeira may be qualified as one of the reasons Portugal was able to discover the then much sought after route to the east, and the subsequent discovery of the Americas. Christopher Columbus himself resided on the islands and betrothed the governor of Porto Santo's daughter .
Two initial and small settlements were made on the island of Madeira: the first the landing spot of Machico and the second the bay area of Funchal - an area once extensively covered by in fennel (funcho, in the native Portuguese), hence
the name Funchal today.
The island of Madeira covers a surface area of 741 Km² - it is 57 Km
in length and 22 Km wide. It is situated approximately
500 km from the African coast of Morocco and about 1000 Km from Lisbon,
the capital of Portugal.
For more information on Madeira visit Madeira-Island.com or search other resources on this part of the world with MadeiraOnline.com.
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