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Portugal covers an
area measuring 92,345 sq km (35,655 sq miles). The
population was estimated to be 10,599,095 million (2006
figure). The country has been a democracy since 1910.
The head of state is President Anibel Antonio Cavaco
Silva and it's
a prime minister is Jose Socrates.
The capital of
Portugal is Lisbon, which is also it's largest city. The
official religion of Portugal is Roman Catholic (some
84% of the population are Catholic).
Time in Portugal is
GMT and the country does adhere to daylight saving the
same as the United Kingdom.
The national flower of
Portugal is Lavender, though it is often mistakenly said
to be the Carnation following the 1974 peaceful
revolution nicknamed the Carnation Revolution.
Mainland Portugal is
sub-divided into ten geographical regions: Minho, Douro
Litoral, Tras-o-Montes, Douro Litoral, Beira Alta, Beira
Litoral, Beira Baixa, Ribatejo, Estremadura, Alentejo
and the Algarve.
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Geographical Facts About Portugal
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◊ Portugal is the most South Westerly
country in Europe |
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◊ Portugal has 12 rivers running
within it's borders: Antua, Coa River, Guadiana, Minho,
Mira, Mondego, Nabão, Rio Alto, Sado, Tagus, Tamega and
Zêzere. |
Sustainable Energy Facts
about Portugal
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◊ In 2006 Portugal opened the world's
largest Solar Energy plant, based in the Alentejo and
Portugal also boasts the world's fire wave energy plant,
which became producing energy in October of the same
year. |
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Migration Facts About Portugal
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◊ Almost 12% of the inhabitants of
Luxembourg and 3% of the people in France are of
Portuguese descent. |
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◊ The net migration rate per ratio is
3.4 per 1,000 people. |
Portuguese Language Facts
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◊ Worldwide Portuguese is spoken by
about 230 million people (of which 210 native
speakers) and is the official language in nine
countries - Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde,
Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Sao
Tome and Principe.
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◊ Portuguese is the ninth most
influential languages spoken in the world after English,
French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, German and
Japanese. |
Feats of Engineering in Portugal
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◊The Vasco de Gama bridge is the longest
bridge in Europe, spanning 17.2 km (10.7 miles.) The
bridge was opened in 1998 on the 500th birthday of the
Portuguese explorer discovered the sea route to India. |
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Portuguese Aviation
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◊ Apart from its seafaring
tradition, Lisbon was also the scene of two
record-breaking moments in aviation history. |
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In 1922, two local pilots, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura
Cabral, left the Portuguese capital for Rio de Janeiro
in a seaplane called Santa Cruz, to complete the first
crossing of the South Atlantic. |
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Coincidentally, the first North Atlantic flight landed
in Lisbon three years earlier on 27 May 1919. |
Sport in Portugal
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◊ Portugal's national
rugby team became the first all amateur team to qualify
for the World Cup in 2007 since the beginning of the
professional era. |
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Portuguese Explorers
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◊ Bartholomew Dias, the
Portuguese explorer, was the first to sail round the
southern tip of Africa, which he named the Cape of Good
Hope. |
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◊ In 1522 Ferdinand
Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, financed by Spain,
became the first to complete a circumnavigation of the
world. |
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◊ At the end of the 1490s
Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India. |
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◊ Pedro Alvarez Cabral was
the discoverer of Brazil. |
Outlawed in Portugal
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◊ The Portuguese slave trade
was outlawed in 1850. |
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◊ Since the eighteenth
century it has been illegal for the bull to be killed in
Portuguese bullfighting. |
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◊ King Manuel II, Portugal's
last king, was deposed in 1910 and lived in exile in
Twickenham in England. |
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Casinos |
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Estoril Casino, 20
kilometres from Lisbon, is the
largest gambling outlet in Europe. It is certainly the
oldest establishment in Portugal, having opened it's
revolving doors in 1920. |
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