Portugal
the country portugal is located in south-west of europe, on the iberian peninsula. it has about 10 mio residents. the capital city is lisbon; the other large city is porto. the area was occupied by celts, carthago, roman empire and visigoths. after the muslim conquest of most of iberia in 726, portugal was part of arabic empires until 1249.
northern portugal had long belonged to the spanish kingdom of leon, yet in 1139 it became independent, and this is seen as the birth of portugal as a kingdom.
after the end of the muslim period, portugal eventually became a strong country, and in the 15th to 17th century is was a world power. this included to own large colonies, such as brazil, angola, mosambique, goa, malakka, timor, macao.
yet all this ended in 1755 when a very strong earthquake destroyed half lisbon, its mighty capital city.
portugal is now a small country and has no outside areas anymore, except of the island of azores and madeira.
however, given its rich history, portugal is almost crowded with uniqe buildings in lisbon and porto and many other villages.
its also famous for its food and wine and music and handicraft. and, by the way, the portuguese language is still widely spoken, by about 250 mio people, especially in brazil.
