Algarve, Portugal Information

Nowadays Portugal is a republic, but in the past it used to be a kingdom with First king Alphonso Henriques.

This was in the year 1139. Over time, Portugal was occupied by many different nations but the Romans and the Moors have left the most traces of their occupation as still can be seen in the villages and older cities. The most Southern part of Portugal is the province Algarve and covers an area of about 35 km wide and 140 km long.

Three Serras (mountain-ranges) separate the Algarve from the dry province Alentejo. These are, in the West the Serra de Monchique with an altitude of 902m, the Serra de Caldeirão (577m) in the central part and the Serra do Malhão with 599m in the East.

In the early days, the city of Silves was the capital of the Algarve. Nowadays Faro takes that position.

Here you also find the international airport. In general the Algarve is split into in three geographical areas; the

West Algarve, Central Algarve and the East Algarve where symbolic borders are drawn from Sagres – Albufeira as the West, Albufeira – Faro as the central part of the Algarve and Faro – Vila Real de Santo Antonio

as the Eastern part. Here the Guardiana river separates Portugal from Spain as a natural border.