Many sea caves and rock formations line the alluring Algarve coast in the south of Portugal, and today we’re shedding light on Benagil Cave – one of the region’s most spectacular and famous natural landmarks. Just east of the small fishing village of Benagil, the cave was formed about 20 million years ago from the pounding waves that sweep in from the Atlantic. Rainfall has caused the softer segments of limestone to erode, creating a giant hole in the cave’s roof, which is what we’re looking down through in our photo.
Go back 15 million years and you'll find most of southern Europe looking like this fantasy forest: thick, scrubby underbrush canopied by wizened laurel trees. An epoch or two of human agricultural advances cleared those ancient woods, but patches persist on a few temperate Atlantic islands, especially here on Madeira, a Portuguese island off north-west Africa.The Fanal Forest, at almost 60 square miles, is the largest surviving laurel forest in the world. Ninety per cent of the forest's growth remains uncut, and some of these long-in-the-root laurels have stood for 500 years.
In Europe’s early summer everyone is itching to get out. Porto is another of Portugal’s coastal cities and is Portugal’s 2nd largest metropolis after Lisbon.
Porto (or Oporto) is known for port wine (I bet you guessed that one) and its stately bridges.
As promised earlier, here you can see why Portugal is an affordable holiday destination.
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