Map of Madeira

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic, directly north of the Spanish Canary Islands, but considerably further away from the coast of Morocco because of the shape of Africa. Even so, it is nearer to Africa than to Portugal, which is some 500 kilometres to the north-east. Madeira's mild climate is the main reason it is a year-round tourist destination, but its attractive scenery and abundant and exotic flora are also important draws. Madeira is a Região Autónoma (Autonomous Region) and consists of Madeira Island, Porto Santo Island, the Desertas Islands and the Savage Islands, only Madeira and Porto Santo being inhabited. Both of them are popular holiday destinations, indeed tourism is practically the only economic sector on Porto Santo.

Madeira, capital Funchal, is much the larger of the two inhabited islands, being around 57 kilometres long and up to 22 kilometres wide, compared with Porto Santo's length of 9 kilometres. It is a mountainous island, and the central mountain chain (rising to an alititude of 1200 metres) also acts as a kind of rain break: rainfall is high in the northwest and low in the south-east. For this reason, there is an extensive, historic system of aqueducts called levadas to transport water across or through the mountains, many of which can be hiked. Madeira gets its name from the Portuguese word for "wood," because when it was discovered it was entirely covered by laurel forest (this was also the case on the Azores and some of the Canary Islands). Most of this laurisilva, to give it its technical name, was cleared over the centuries by settlers to create farmland, but a large expanse (150 square kilometres, if I am converting properly - 14,950 hectares?) of laurel forest still exists. It is contained and conserved within the Madeira Natural Park and is a UNESCO world heritage site.