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Castles In Portugal
Castles in Portugal were crucial components of the military throughout its history. The Portuguese learned the art of building fortifications from the Romans and the Moors. The Romans, who ruled and colonized the territory of current-day Portugal for more than four centuries, built forts with high walls and strong towers to defend their populations. The Moors, who invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711 A.D., brought new stonework and heavily fortified gates to the peninsula. History Portugal has well-defined geographic boundaries, with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west, and rivers and mountains to the east and north. It occupies the westernmost portion of the Iberian Peninsula and is about the size of the American state of Indiana. The country is a place of topographical contrasts, making defense difficult. The areas around Porto in the north are covered in green hills, with fertile river valleys and a rocky coast. The green mountains are less fertile as they sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military History Of Portugal
The military history of Portugal is as long as the history of the country, from before the emergence of the independent Portuguese state. Before Portugal Before the emergence of Portugal, between the 9th and the 12th centuries, its territory was part of important military conflicts – these were mainly the result of three processes. Roman expansion * The conflict between Ancient Rome and Carthage for the dominion of the western Mediterranean sea mainly occurred in Iberia (the Roman Hispania) during the Second Punic War from 218 to 201 BC. * The Roman conquest of Hispania, a long process from 218 BC (in the context of the Second Punic War) to 17 BC (already during Emperor Augustus), had three major confrontations regarding modern Portuguese territory: ** The Lusitanian War from 155 to 139 BC, between the Romans and the Lusitanians, namely during the period these were led by Viriatus. ** The expedition and conquest of Gallaecia (north of Portugal and Galicia), from 135 and 13 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algarve
The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has its administrative centre in the city of Faro, where both the region's international airport (IATA: FAO) and public university, the University of Algarve, are located. The region coincides with Faro District and is subdivided into two zones, one to the West ( Barlavento) and another to the East ( Sotavento). Tourism and related activities are extensive and make up the bulk of the Algarve's summer economy. Production of food, which includes fish and other seafood, as well as different types of fruit and vegetables, such as oranges, figs, plums, carob pods, almonds, avocados, tomatoes, cauliflowers, strawberries, and raspberries, are also economically important in the region. Although Lisbon surpasses the Algarve in terms of tourism reve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faro, Portugal
Faro ( , ) is a municipality, the southernmost city and capital of the district of the same name, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. With an estimated population of 60,995 inhabitants in 2019 (with 39,733 inhabitants in the city proper, making it the biggest city and second most populous municipality in the Algarve (after Loulé) and one of the biggest in Southern Portugal), the municipality covers an area of about . History The Ria Formosa lagoon attracted humans from the Palaeolithic age until the end of prehistory. The first settlements date from the fourth century BC, during the period of Phoenician colonization of the western Mediterranean. At the time, the area was known as Ossonoba, and was the most important urban centre of southern Portugal and commercial port for agricultural products, fish, and minerals. Between the second and eighth centuries, the city was under the domain of the Romans, then the Byzantines, and later Visigoths, before being conquered by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sintra Municipality
Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populated municipalities of Portugal. A major tourist destination famed for its picturesqueness, the municipality has several historic palaces, castles, scenic beaches, parks and gardens. The area includes the Sintra-Cascais Nature Park through which the Sintra Mountains run. The historic center of the ''Vila de Sintra'' is famous for its 19th-century Romanticist architecture, historic estates and villas, gardens, and royal palaces and castles, which resulted in the classification of the town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sintra's landmarks include the medieval Castle of the Moors, the romanticist Pena National Palace and the Portuguese Renaissance Sintra National Palace. Sintra is one of the wealthiest municipalities in both Portugal and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle Of The Moors (Sintra)
The Castle of the Moors ( pt, Castelo dos Mouros) is a hilltop medieval castle located in the central Portuguese civil parish of Santa Maria e São Miguel, in the municipality of Sintra, about northwest of Lisbon. Built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th centuries, it was an important strategic point during the Reconquista, and was taken by Christian forces after the fall of Lisbon in 1147. It is classified as a National Monument, part of the Sintra Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. History The castle was constructed during the 8th and 9th centuries, during the period of Muslim Iberia, as the central place in a territory that was primarily agricultural, and which was necessary to protect its population. In 1031, after the loss of Córdoba to the Almoravid dynasty, the king of Badajoz opted to transfer to Alfonso VI of León and Castile a few territories on the Iberian peninsula (among them Sintra) in order to gain an alliance with the Christian king. This trans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taipa (Building Material)
Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. Under its French name of pisé it is also a material for sculptures, usually small and made in molds. It has been especially used in Central Asia and Tibetan art, and sometimes in China. Edifices formed of rammed earth are on every continent except Antarctica, in a range of environments including temperate, wet, semiarid desert, montane, and tropical regions. The availability of suitable soil and a building design appropriate for local climatic conditions are the factors that favour its use. The French term "pisé de terre" or "terre pisé" was sometimes used in English for architectural uses, especially in the 19th century. The process Making rammed earth involves compacting a damp mixture of subsoil that has suitable proportions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle Of Paderne
The Castle of Paderne ( pt, Castelo de Paderne) is an ancient fortification located in the civil parish of Paderne, municipality of Albufeira, in the Portuguese Algarve. It was constructed in the later 12th century by Berbers, in an area around inland. The edifice is located just from the resort town of Albufeira, along a bend in the Quarteira River. It is believed to be one of the original castles that occupy the shield of the Portuguese national flag. History Around the middle of the 2nd century, the Roman conquered the Lusitanian castro, which had developed between Neolithic and Cacholithic. The settlement was transformed into a military outpost and, eventually, politico-administrative centre named ''Paderne'' or ''Paderna''.H. Catarino (1994), p.73–87 Its location on a rocky peninsular bend was of strategic importance, as it controlled the ancient Roman road ''Via Lusitanorum'' crossing the Quarteira River on the south. The Roman villa was conquered by the Moors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cistern
A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by their waterproof linings. Modern cisterns range in capacity from a few litres to thousands of cubic metres, effectively forming covered reservoirs. Origins Early domestic and agricultural use Waterproof lime plaster cisterns in the floors of houses are features of Neolithic village sites of the Levant at, for instance, Ramad and Lebwe, and by the late fourth millennium BC, as at Jawa in northeastern Lebanon, cisterns are essential elements of emerging water management techniques in dry-land farming communities. The Ancient Roman impluvium, a standard feature of the domus house, generally had a cistern underneath. The impluvium and associated structures collected, filtered, cooled, and stored the water, and also cooled and ventilated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Garb
Gharb al-Andalus ( ar, غرب الأندلس, trans. ''gharb al-ʼandalus''; "west of al-Andalus"), or just al-Gharb ( ar, الغرب, trans. ''al-gharb''; "the west"), was the name given by the Muslims of Iberia to the region of southern modern-day Portugal and part of West-central modern day Spain during their rule of the territory, from 711 to 1249. This period started with the fall of the Visigothic kingdom after Tariq ibn-Ziyad's invasion of Iberia and the establishment of the Umayyad control in the territory. The present day Algarve derives its name from this Arabic name. The region had a population of about 500,000 people. Umayyad Conquest After a small civil war in the already Christianized Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania, King Roderic (''Rodrigo'' in Portuguese and Spanish) had a strong position in the peninsula. His opponents, exiled in Ceuta, asked Musa ibn Nusair, Umayyad Muslim governor and general, for help. The initially skeptical general sent an experimental ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silves Castle
The Castle of Silves is a castle in the civil parish of Silves in the municipality of Silves in the Portuguese Algarve. It's believed that the first fortifications were built upon a possible Lusitanian castro, by the Romans or Visigoths. Between the 8th and 13th centuries, the castle was occupied by the moors who expanded it, making it one of the best preserved Moorish fortifications in Portugal, resulting in its classification as a National Monument in 1910. History From archaeological excavations, it is assumed that the first fortress on this site consisted of a Lusitanian castro. It is believed that Phoenicans, Greeks and Carthaginians traversed the site at one time, but that around 201 B.C. the Romans conquered Silves, transforming it into a citadel of their occupation, and commercial center that prospered for the next five centuries. Around 716 A.D., the Visigothic citadel was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate who reinforced the existing fortifications with a new series o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal. Varying sources limit it to the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, a region that was known by the French during colonial times as "''Afrique du Nord''" and is known by Arabs as the Maghreb ("West", ''The western part of Arab World''). The United Nations definition includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and the Western Sahara, the territory disputed between Morocco and the Sahrawi Republic. The African Union definition includes the Western Sahara and Mauritania but not Sudan. When used in the term Middle East and North Africa (MENA), it often refers only to the countries of the Maghreb. North Africa includes the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and plazas de soberanía ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the Muhammad in Islam, main and final Islamic prophet.Peters, F. E. 2009. "Allāh." In , edited by J. L. Esposito. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . (See alsoquick reference) "[T]he Muslims' understanding of Allāh is based...on the Qurʿān's public witness. Allāh is Unique, the Creator, Sovereign, and Judge of mankind. It is Allāh who directs the universe through his direct action on nature and who has guided human history through his prophets, Abraham, with whom he made his covenant, Moses/Moosa, Jesus/Eesa, and Muḥammad, through all of whom he founded his chosen communities, the 'Peoples of the Book.'" It is the Major religious groups, world's second-largest religion behind Christianity, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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