Trail of the seven hanging valleys

This route goes down and up ravines that almost always end above sea level – the hanging valleys. In the distant past, each hanging valley was associated with the mouth of a river, owing its formation to a rapid retreat of the coastline not accompanied by the notch of the waterline.

The action of fresh and salty waters results in the formation of a patterned pattern on the coast, known as the karst landscape, with a remarkable diversity of geoforms that can be observed at Praia da Marinha: arches, caves, sinkholes and shallows.

Benagil Beach appears associated with the mouth of a torrential river that carved a narrow gully in the cliff. This beach was home to a fishing community dedicated to artisanal arts; Nowadays, boats are mainly used to visit sea caves.

At Praia do Carvalho, the sand is accessed through a tunnel excavated in the soft Miocene limestone, where you can observe the profusion of sea shells aggregated in the rock matrix. In the Mediterranean coastal scrub, you can find the dwarf palm tree, the only European palm tree, and you can see the black-headed warbler, a small bird typical of the region.

The dense green of the Mediterranean vegetation is followed by a landscape with lunar characteristics, where clear and bare rock dominates. Ancient legends are told about this large rock, Leixão do Ladrão, such as that of the Moorish princess who mourns the death of her lover, creating with her tears the typical lacework of the limestone rock.

Around the Alfanzina Lighthouse, a forest of Aleppo pine grows, one of the few trees that colonizes these stony and arid lands. Here, the pine forests function as ecological islands for tits, blackbirds or Galician owls. The dense vegetation favors mammals such as rabbits, pythons and foxes.

Source: Turismo de Portugal