Silves Agarve Portugal.

Jesus speaking: ” Learn of me, for I am meek, and lowly in heart: and you will have rest for your soul.”

Matthew 11: 29

Before we walk into the town, here is something about its history,  we will then leave the town with a little about its geography.

418- 721 Silves was part of the Visigothic Kingdom

After 713, when the Moors invaded Iberia, Silves became a part of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba under the Arabic name Shib.

1051 – 1091 al- Mu’tadid,and a famous poet ruled.

1156 after the Almoravid conquest, the town became Almohad 

1189 King Sancho I of Portugal conquered the town helped by Northern European Crusaders. King Sacho  built the castle, which is now an important monument of Portuguese heritage.

1190-1191 The town was taken by  Almohads. The governor of Córdoba attacked Silves in 1191 and took 3,000 Christian Slaves.

1197 The city was attacked by German crusaders.

1242 The town was taken by Paio Peres Correia. The great mosque was changed into Silves Cathedral.

1491 The town of Silves was given to Queen Eleanora by her husband, King John II of Portugal.

This is such a quick walk through time it is almost shameful, but leaving the past shall we walk into this town in the last few days of 2024.

We will start by looking at the tidal river Arade and then up some streets to the castle.

A few things I liked that showed  wear / age / weathering.

The castle

The temperature here in the winter varies between 17C  during the day and 5 – 6 C  at night. Silves is built on top of one of the largest aquifers in South Portugal. The area has many orange groves, a fruit introduced by the Moors.

‘An aquifer is an underground layer of water- bearing material, consisting of permeable or fractured rock.’ (Dictionary definition as a reminder for me.)

So I wanted to know more about aquifers and this is what I found:

The largest aquifer is in Australia. It covers 1.7 million square kilometres , equivalent to about a quarter of the entire country and seven times the area of the UK. The name: The Great Artesian Basin.

Then Lester R. Brown says this: ‘ It takes 1,000 tons of water to produce one ton of grain. As water becomes scarce and countries are forced to divert irrigation water to cities and industry, they will import more grain. As they do so, water scarcity will be transmitted across national borders via grain trade. Aquifer depletion is a largely invisible  threat, but that does not make it any less real. ‘

Silves a sunlit town about 14 miles from the coast and of historical interest. A peaceful place to be in.

Thank you for spending time with us.

Sandy 🙂