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Map of the Azores Islands (1584) by Abraham Ortelius. The following article describes the history of the Azores, an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic Ocean, about 1,400 km (870 mi) west of Lisbon, about 1,500 km (930 mi) northwest of Morocco, and about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.
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.
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 ...
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 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 ...
Herodotus (430 BC) had only vaguely heard of the Cassiterides, "from which we are said to have our tin", but did not discount the islands as legendary. [2] Later writers—Posidonius, Diodorus Siculus, [3] Strabo [4] and others—call them smallish islands off ("some way off," Strabo says) the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula, which contained tin mines or, according to Strabo, tin and ...
The first references to the settlement of the Azores date to between 1439 and 1449, through the donation of Henry the Navigator the colonization of seven islands in the central and eastern groups of the archipelago. Terceira, included in this group, would be administered by Jácome de Bruges as stipulated in the nomination process, dated March ...
The geographical references in the Odyssey to the various locations seem confused and have given rise to much scholarly argument, beginning in ancient times. Odysseus' Ithaca is usually identified with the island Ithaki, as it shares the same name with the ancient location and has archaeological and historical associations with the Odyssey.