Four hundred miles off the north coast of Africa, Madeira is an island of lush terraced hills and winding hairpin roads, which transport visitors in minutes from mountaintop hiking trails to coastal villages serving local seafood such as limpets. The first known settlers of what's now an autonomous region of Portugal arrived in the early 15th century.
They found an unihabited land overgrown with prehistoric laurel forest (the remaining habitat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site today) and extreme changes of elevation. To bring water from the wet north west to the drier agricultural regions in the south, the Portuguese built levadas (aqueducts).
Many of these narrow canals have become walking routes but they're still used to irrigate farmland, such as Susana Ornellas's banana orchard in Câmara de Lobos, run by her family for over a century.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January/February 2025 من National Geographic Traveller (UK).
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January/February 2025 من National Geographic Traveller (UK).
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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the RETURN
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