"Moorish Silves" Silves by johnsakura

silves algarve portugal

This city Silves is an amazing place where you can smell history on the moorish loking streets. Silves owes its existence to the navigability of the Arade river and to its strategic position atop of a hill. It was possibly founded during the period of Romans, but it was with the Moorish invasion which began around 714/716 that Silves became a big and very important city.

You can see on the picture the welcome sigh entrance to the city. Its also written in arabic, a few centuries ago, the only language spoken on the city.

silves algarve portugal

By the 11th century it was the capital of the Algarve At this time Silves was also a centre of culture, home to poets, chroniclers and lawmakers which made this city as one of the most important cultural places in medieval Europe.