Alentejo (/ˌælənˈteɪʒoʊ/ AL-ən-TAY-zhoh, UK also /-ʒuː/ -zhoo, Portuguese: [ɐlẽˈtɛʒu] ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond the Tagus" (além do Tejo).
Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alentejo. It corresponds to the districts of Beja, Évora, Portalegre, and Alentejo Litoral. Its main cities are Évora, Beja, Sines, Serpa, Estremoz, Elvas, and Portalegre.
Porto Covo is one of the two civil parishes in the municipality of Sines, located along the western Alentejo coast of Portugal, about 170 km (110 mi) south of Lisbon. The population in 2011 was 1,038, in an area of 50.72 km. Known for its beaches and ties to the ocean, the name Porto Covo likely translates as port of the covos, the term covo referring to a fishing net, used for capturing lobsters and crabs.
The term "provinces" (Portuguese: províncias) has been used throughout history to identify regions of continental Portugal. Current legal subdivisions of Portugal do not coincide with the provinces, but several provinces, in their 19th- and 20th-century versions, still correspond to culturally relevant, strongly self-identifying categories. They include:
The islands of Azores and Madeira were never called "provinces".
Tartessian is an extinct Paleo-Hispanic language found in the Southwestern inscriptions of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly located in the historical Tartessos, the south of Portugal (Algarve and southern Alentejo), and the southwest of Spain (south of Extremadura and western Andalusia). There are 95 such inscriptions; the longest has 82 readable signs. Around one third of them were found in Early Iron Age necropolises or other Iron Age burial sites associated with rich complex burials. It is usual to date them to the 7th century BC and to consider the southwestern script to be the most ancient Paleo-Hispanic script, with characters most closely resembling specific Phoenician letter forms found in inscriptions dated to c. 825 BC. Five of the inscriptions occur on stelae that have been interpreted as Late Bronze Age carved warrior gear from the Central European Urnfield culture.
The Guadiana River (/ˌɡwɑːdiˈɑːnə/ GWAH-dee-AH-nə, US also /ɡwɑːdˈjɑːnə/ gwahd-YAH-nə, Spanish: [ɡwaˈðjana], Portuguese: [ɡwɐdiˈɐnɐ]) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the eastern portion of Extremadura to the southern provinces of the Algarve; the river and its tributaries flow from east to west, then south through Portugal to the border towns of Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) and Ayamonte (Spain), where it flows into the Gulf of Cádiz. With a course that covers a distance of 829 kilometres (515 mi), it is the fourth-longest in the Iberian Peninsula, and its hydrological basin extends over an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi) (the majority of which lies within Spain).
The Guadiana River (/ˌɡwɑːdiˈɑːnə/ GWAH-dee-AH-nə, US also /ɡwɑːdˈjɑːnə/ gwahd-YAH-nə, Spanish: [ɡwaˈðjana], Portuguese: [ɡwɐdiˈɐnɐ]) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the eastern portion of Extremadura to the southern provinces of the Algarve; the river and its tributaries flow from east to west, then south through Portugal to the border towns of Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) and Ayamonte (Spain), where it flows into the Gulf of Cádiz. With a course that covers a distance of 829 kilometres (515 mi), it is the fourth-longest in the Iberian Peninsula, and its hydrological basin extends over an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 mi) (the majority of which lies within Spain).
The Southwest Script, also known as Southwestern Script, Tartessian, South Lusitanian, and Conii script, is a Paleohispanic script used to write an unknown language typically identified as Tartessian. Southwest inscriptions have been found primarily in the southwestern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the south of Portugal (specifically in the Algarve and southern Alentejo), but also in Spain (in southern Extremadura and western Andalusia).