Ilhéu de Cima is an uninhabited island of

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

. It is part of the

Ilhéus do Rombo The Ilhéus do Rombo, also known as the Ilhéus Secos (Portuguese for "Dry Islets", because of their aridity and paucity of vegetation), are a group of small, uninhabited islands in the Cape Verde archipelago, lying off the coast of north-west A ...

islet group, located east of Ilhéu Grande, the other main islet of the group, and northeast of the island

Brava Brava or La Brava may refer to: Geography *Brava, Cape Verde, a volcanic island *Brava, Costa Rica, an island of Costa Rica (Isla Brava) *Costa Brava, a coastal area Mediterranean of northeast Spain * Barawa, a town in Somalia commonly known as ' ...

. They are administratively a part of the Brava municipality. Surrounding islets include Ilhéu Luiz Carneiro, Ilhéu Sapado, and Ilhéu do Rei. The island is part of the integral nature reserve ''Ilhéus do Rombo'', famous for its seabird colonies. The southern part of the islet is the highest, culminating at . This is where the

Ilhéu de Cima Lighthouse Ilhéu de Cima Lighthouse ( pt, Farol do Ilhéu de Cima) is a lighthouse on Ilhéu de Cima located about 80 m above sea level. The lighthouse is the only building inside the integral nature reserve Ilhéus do Rombo The Ilhéus do Rombo, also know ...

is situated, the only building on the island. The islet was mentioned as "Ghuay" in the 1747 map by

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 21 March 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes. Bellin was born in Paris. He was hydrographer of France's hydrographic office, member of t ...

. Notable endemic fauna found on the island include the

Iago sparrow The Iago sparrow (''Passer iagoensis''), also known as the Cape Verde or rufous-backed sparrow, is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. It is endemic to the Cape Verde archipelago, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean near western Africa. ...

. In the mid-1950s, W. R. P. Bourne observed females remaining in flocks while males began to take up locations on rocky slopes from which they could sing. A species of

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

Esperiopsis cimensis ''Esperiopsis cimensis'' is a species of demosponges found in the Atlantic waters around Cape Verde, western Africa. The species name is named after the type locality, Ilhéu de Cima. The species was discovered in 1986 in the waters southeast ...

'' was found in the deep waters surrounding the islet.van Soest, Rob W. M., Elly J. Beglinger & Nicole J. De Voogd, 2012: Sponges of the family Esperiopsidae (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida) from northwest Africa. European journal of taxonomy, 18: 1–21.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cima Ilheu Uninhabited islands of Cape Verde Protected areas of Cape Verde Brava Municipality

See also

References