Madeira, is an autonomous region of Portugal, in the about 805 km southwest of the mainland.
Madeira is an archipelago situated just under 400 kilometres north of the Canary Islands, 520 kilometres west of Morocco.
Madeira sits on the African tectonic plate, but is culturally, politically and ethnically associated with Europe, with its population predominantly descended from Portuguese settlers. The capital of Madeira is Funchal, on the main island’s south coast. The population is around 250,000.
Funchal, its capital, is the sixth largest city in Portugal. We visited there in November, 2005 as part of an Atlantic crossing.
Madeira, uninhabited at the time, was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1419 and settled after 1420. The archipelago is the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Age of discovery.
