Azores, landscape

Detailed Satellite map Azores, landscape

The Azores are a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean and are an autonomous region of Portugal. The 9 islands of the Azores archipelago are divided into three groups: The Eastern Group of Sao Miguel and Santa Maria;The Central Group of Terceira, Graciosa, Sao Jorge, Pico and Faial; The Western Group of Flores and Corvo.

Each of the nine islands of the Azores has an individualized landscape. They have one point in common, however. There is the presence of luxuriant, exuberant greenery which includes all the colors of the rainbow and is speckled with bright flowers. The volcanic formation of the islands has showered them with a spectacular natural beauty. Vast craters nurturing glistening blue lakes, vertical black cliffs falling into the ocean, profuse rolling valleys, rugged mountains and hot mineral springs and geysers combine to form truly divergent landscape found nowhere else in the world.

The volcanic origin of all Azores islands is revealed by their volcanic cones and craters. Pico, a volcano that stands 2,351 meters high on the island of the same name, has the highest altitude in the Azores. The Pico island landscape is a sublime mixture of lava rock and exotic vegetation in an ever changing scenery that envelopes this scarcely populated island.

It’s worthy to mention are sulphur grottoes, with an underground lake on Graciosa, the volcanic cones of Furnas valley on Sao Miguel, the remains of the Capelinhos volcano , the sulphur grottoes on Terceira, the basaltic columns of "Rocha dos Bordoes" on Flores and the grottoes and caverns, some of them hundreds of meters long, on the islands of Sao Miguel, Santa Maria, Pico, Sao Jorge and Terceira.

In the Azores, sea-birds and various types of birds, including the priolo, a sort of grey bullfinch that is endemic to the region, constitute the most attractive elements of the land fauna.