Sal, Cape Verde Information & Sal, Cape Verde Links at HealthHaven.com

	Sal
	Municipality
	Coat of arms
	Coat of arms
Island	Sal
Seat town	Espargos
Area	216 km2 (83 sq mi)
Population	17,631 (2005)
Density	82 /km2 (212 /sq mi)
ISO 3166-2 code	CV-SL
CGN-CV code	41
Demonym	Salense m, ~s pl
	Website: http://www.municipiodosal.cv

Sal
Native name: Dja d’ Sal’
Geography
Location	Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates	16°43′N 22°56′W / 16.717°N 22.933°W
Area	216 square kilometres (83 sq mi)
Length	30 kilometres (19 mi)
Width	12 kilometres (7.5 mi)
Highest point	Monte Vermelho (406 metres (1,330 ft))
Country
	Cape Verde
Concelhos (Municipalities)	Sal
Largest city	Espargos

Sal (Portuguese for “salt” — from the mines at Pedra de Lume) is an island in Cape Verde. It belongs to the northern group of islands, called Barlavento. The island is composed by a single administrative division, the Sal municipality. The island is home to Amílcar Cabral International Airport, the main airport of Cape Verde.

[edit] Geography

The island is 30 km long by 12 km wide. It is one of the three sandy eastern islands (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) of the archipelago, with white sandy beaches and fairly flat. The highest elevation of 406 m at Monte Grande. Serra Negra has a height of 92 m.

[edit] Climate

Sal Island has 350 days of sunshine. Winds mainly blow from the northeast. However, many days do also have cloud, but it tends to be broken and seldom brings rain. The 'rainy season' is from August to mid-October, although rainfall is still low.

[edit] History

The island was discovered on December 3, 1460 and named Llana until salt deposits were found. Sal is the geologically oldest island in Cape Verde, formed 50 million years ago during the eruption of a volcano which is now inactive.

The municipality was created in 1935, when, due to a population increase, it was separated from the older Municipality of Boa Vista.

[edit] Economy

Sal’s main town, Vila dos Espargos, is home to one of the nation’s international airports and has around 8,000 inhabitants. Its population grew around salt collection and later shifted to fishing, but is now based on tourism (amounting to 50% of the archipelago’s tourism) at the beach resort of Santa Maria.

Its airport, Amilcar Cabral International Airport, was used as a refuelling base by South African Airways on its Johannesburg to London routes. Later, flights to and from New York and Atlanta also refuelled there, and the island was a crew-change station. SAA established the long runways needed by the fully-fueled Boeing 707s on their take-offs in the high temperatures. On July 1, 2006, SAA operated its final flight to Sal due to the ending of its flights to Atlanta.

Saline marshes can be found in the Pedra de Lume crater and north of Santa Maria.

[edit] Transportation

The major roads on the island are:

Santa Maria - Espargos Road (paved)
Palmeira - Espargos Road (narrowly paved)
Pedra de Lume - Espargos Road (paved)
Espargos - Reguinho Fiúra Road (unpaved)

[edit] Settlements

There are six inhabited centers:

Pedra de Lume, on the eastern coast, is the most ancient, and the home of the first salt workers. Today it is only a small village with very few inhabitants.
Palmeira is a fishing village, built around a port situated on the opposite coast of the island. It is also a small village but is growing. Palmeira is also home to the island of Sal's port.
Espargos (pop: 6,173 (2005)^[2]) for the town, 8,000 including Hortelão and Preguiça) is the main urban center and is situated between Pedra de Lume and Palmeira. It was formed around the international airport named after Amilcar Cabral (IATA airport code SID) located in the heart of the island.
Terra Boa is the only place on the island where agriculture can be found on a large scale, as the island is very dry, mainly because it has no mountains to induce rainfall. This place is situated north of Espargos.
Murdeira is a tourist resort, which is growing in population.
Santa Maria (pop: 20,114 (2008)^[3]), which was a former salt working village, is now the tourism center of the island.

Other inhabited settlements are:

Feijoal, 1 km west of Pedra de Lume.
Fontona, south of Palmeira.
Reguinho Fiúra, a remote village near a lighthouse and overlooking Ponta Norte, the island's northernmost point.

[edit] Demography

Population of Sal, Cape Verde (1940—2010)
1940^[4]	1950^[4]	1960^[4]	1970^[4]	1980^[4]	1990^[4]	2000^[5]	2010^[6]
1121	1838	2608	5505	5826	7715	14816	20702

[edit] Persons

Ildo Lobo – musician
Josh Angulo - professional windsurfer

[edit] References

^ Source: Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas.
^ [1]
^ [2]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Source: Statoids
^ Source: Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas.
^ Source: projection to 2010 from the Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sal (Cape Verde)

[0] Source: Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas.

[1] [1]

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[Stat-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Source: Statoids

[4] Source: Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas.

[5] Source: projection to 2010 from the Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas.

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[2]

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