Geography
The northern parish is enveloped by the mountains of Paul da Serra: Pico da Suna (1040 metres), Pico do Larano (765 metres) and Pico da Maiata (766 metres) are the highest points in the parish. Even along the coast, Penha de Águia (a mountainous escarpment 580 metres in altitude) is difficult to climb; the area, Penha da Águia, means mountain of the eagles, giving the impression that only the birds settle these lands.
The rugged terrain and difficult communication has, over the years, resulted in small agglomerations of inhabitants, resulting in a "community of communities" that includes 78 different localities:
|
|
|
|
|
The parish seat, is the central point, responsible for delivery of municipal services, as well as the location of the primary school, lyceum, gymnasia, central church and primary square (Portuguese: praça).
Read more about this topic: Porto Da Cruz
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The California fever is not likely to take us off.... There is neither romance nor glory in digging for gold after the manner of the pictures in the geography of diamond washing in Brazil.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)