This plain white cross surmounts a stone monument at the place in Portugal "where the land ends and the sea begins": the wild and windswept Cabo da Roca promontory, renowned as the westernmost point in continental Europe, with its rugged near-vertical granite and limestone cliffs jutting into the Atlantic Ocean about 42 km (26 miles) from Lisbon.
Cabo da Roca, Lisbon region and district, Portugal: at an elevation of 140 meters (460 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean, this simple white cross surmounts a stone monument recording the location of Cape Roca as the westernmost point of mainland Portugal and of continental Europe. The inscriptions also include a line written in the 16th century by Luís Vaz de Camões (1524-1580), now regarded as both Portugal's greatest poet. It describes the rugged promontory about 42 km (26 miles) from Lisbon as: "Where the land ends and the sea begins" - an apt portrayal of near-vertical cliffs plunging into the sea and massive granite and limestone sea pillars separated from the headland by erosion. The Romans knew the wild peninsula at the west end of the Sintra massif as Promontorium Magnum. To medieval men and women - as late as the 14th century - the remote and windswept cape was the edge of the known world. For sailors, the towering cliffs have always been a vital landmark, and from 1772, their navigation has been aided by a lighthouse built at the highest point on the cape, some 165 m (540 ft) above sea level. Cabo da Roca is now a popular tourist destination with its beauty officially protected and preserved as part of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park.
Size: 4912px × 7360px
Location: Cabo da Roca, Lisbon region and district, Portugal
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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