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One fact often debated is the origin of the name "Azores" used to identify the archipelago. By 1492, in the globe of Martin Behaim, the eastern and central group of islands were referred to as Insulae Azore ("Islands of the Azores"), while the islands of western group were called the Insulae Flores ("Islands of Flowers").
All of the islands have volcanic origins, although some, such as Santa Maria, have had no recorded activity in the time since the islands were settled several centuries ago. Mount Pico, on the island of Pico, is the highest point in Portugal, at 2,351 m (7,713 ft). If measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean to their peaks, the ...
The Fortunate Isles or Isles of the Blessed [1] [2] (Ancient Greek: μακάρων νῆσοι, makarōn nēsoi) [3] were semi-legendary islands in the Atlantic Ocean, variously treated as a simple geographical location and as a winterless earthly paradise inhabited by the heroes of Greek mythology.
The Azores archipelago consists of nine main islands. The islands extend for more than 600 km (370 mi) in a northwest–southeast direction. The islands form three clusters. Flores and Corvo are to west; Graciosa, Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, and Faial are in the centre; and São Miguel, Santa Maria, and the Formigas islets are to the east. São ...
The Islands of Diomedes (Διομήδειοι) [1] were named after Diomedes, King of Argos. Diomedia (Διομήδεια), one of these islands, was according to the Greek myths where Diomedes was buried. [2] [3] The islands are associated with modern-day Palagruža archipelago. Pliny the Elder writes that on Diomedia there was a monument of ...
Called não-meesqueças, or forget-me-nots, the purple flowers were considered extinct before a cluster of plants was discovered growing on Corvo, the Azores’ smallest island, in 2014. Despite ...
Because none of the Macaronesian islands were ever part of any continent, all of the native plants and animals reached the islands via long-distance dispersal. Laurel-leaved forests , called laurisilva , once covered most of the Azores, Madeira, and parts of the Canaries at an altitude of between 400 and 1,200 metres (1,300 and 3,900 ft), the ...
The second largest island in area is Euboea or Evvia, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the Central Greece region. After the third and fourth largest Greek islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.