Between Cidade do Maio and Morro, the 5 km long and 1.5 km wide saltpan is the most important feature of the island, because historically it had brought some wealth to Maio, at least for some time. A line of dunes separates the pan from the sea, and it is only at high tides that […]
Schlagwort: Panorama
Monte Batalha
Monte Batalha (294 m) is situated in the hinterland of Calheta close to the west coast of Maio, and it is the second highest mountain on the island. In the wet season, its foothills are used for agriculture, and the higher ranges are good for grazing livestock. On sea-level, there is the forest of Calheta […]
Maio
Maio is the easternmost of the Sotavento islands (“under the wind”) of Cape Verde and besides Sal the oldest island of the archipelago. Its 269 km² are quite flat except for some old volcanic mountains in the interior of which Monte Penoso (436 m) is the highest. The island is dry, barren, hostile, and the […]
Pedra de Lume
Pedra de Lume is a small settlement on Sal´s northeast coast that has grown around a tiny port. After long years of only being a stopover for turtle hunters, the interest in the island began to rose when Manuel António Martins started the exploitation of the salt ponds in the nearby crater in 1796. Water […]
Serra Malagueta
Serra Malagueta (Chili/Pepper Mountains) is a mountain range located in the north of Santiago, and together with the one around Pico da Antónia (1394 m), the highest peak on the island, it is an important rain catcher. Because of its mountainous interior, the biggest island of the archipelago with the most inhabitants receives more rain […]
Assomada
Assomada lies at 550 m elevation on a plateau in the centre of the island of Santiago amidst a picturesque mountain scenery. Therefore, the climate is cooler and thus more pleasant than in muggy Praia, and the surrounding landscape is characterized by farmland as well as the nearby mountains of Serra Malagueta in the background. […]
Cidade Velha
In 1462, Antonio da Noli, an Italian seafarer exploring the Atlantic Ocean for the Portuguese, built a settlement at the exit auf Ribeira Grande, a beautiful valley at the south coast of the island of Santiago. This is the beginning of human history on the archipelago as the settlement started to flourish, being granted the […]
Praia
With approximately around 160.000 or even more inhabitants, Cape Verde´s capital Praia is by far the biggest city not only on the island of Santiago, but in the whole country. It might look like some Peruvian or Bolivian city in the Andes, but it is not – unfortunately. Then it wouldn´t be so bloody hot […]
Chobe National Park
Chobe River floats through northern Botswana and marks the border to Zambezi Region (hist.: Caprivi Strip) in Namibia as well as with Zambia before flowing into Zambezi River at the quadripoint of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe at Kazungula. It´s born in the highland of Angola under the name Cuando, and from there it meanders […]
Kafue National Park
Kafue National Park is a protected area of many superlatives. With a size of 22.480 km2, it is not only the largest National Park in the country but also one of the largest worldwide and more than half the size of Switzerland. Furthermore, it is the first National Park in Zambia, founded in 1950, but […]