Name Derivation :

The name of Algarve has been driven from Arabic word "Al-Gharb" where "Al" is the modifier for "the" and "Gharb" means "west" . It has been the westmost land the Arab muslims were ruling .

Location and Population :

Algarve is located in the south part of Portugal by the beautiful Atlantic ocean . It has a population of around 500,000 . Faro is the capital of Algarve and it is centrally located with a busy international airport called Aeroporto De Faro.

History :

Algarve enjoys more than 3000 years of history occupied by different people in the Mediterranean

1200BC - The first who established trading posts along the region were Phoenicians

600BC- Algarve was controlled by Carthaginians .

550BC- Portimao (then Portus-Hannibalis) founded by Carthaginians.

100BC- Romans conquered the region and ruled over the area for almost 600 years .

500- Visigoths took over the Romans and occupied the region .

711- Islam influenced the Mediterranean region and the Muslim Moors conquered the area for 500 years and gave the Algarve its name , Al-Gharb . They set Silves as their capital .

1189- Sancho I , the second Portuguese king , attacked Algarve from Lisbon and captured the Moorish capital of Silves .

1191- Moors reconquered the region and ruled Algarve for almost 200 years .

1300- Over the years Christianity spread widely over the region and in 13th century first Catholic churches were built converting the mosques into churches .

1415- Henry the Navigator commanded 200 ships from Lagos, the then-capital of Algarve,to attack the important cities in Morocco .

16th century - Lagos and Tavira became important trading ports .

1580- Spanish king Philip II  inherited the Portuguese thrown and rules over the country for 60 years .

1640- Portuguese restoration war started to regain the Portuguese sovereignty and it lasted for 28 years .

1755- The tremendous earthquake of Nov.1st , 1755 with a magnitude of 8.5-9 demolished almost everything along the coast of Algarve except Faro which became the capital of Algarve after Lagos .

19th century - Economic recovery took place and many fish-canning factories established and they brought wealth to the region until 1970.

1970 onward - Tourism became the main drive in the economy of Algarve .