Onde ficam as praias em Portugal

What does “Algarve” mean, and where does the name come from?

The Algarve, Portugal’s southern beach region, has an Arabic name. It comes from al-gharb, “the west,” because it was the western edge of the Arabic-speaking lands in the Iberian Peninsula. The al- at the start is the Arabic word for “the,” and you can still spot it in many Portuguese words.

Sometimes the al- stays easy to see: alface (lettuce), almofada (cushion), aldeia (village). Before some sounds, the l blended into the next consonant. That’s how Arabic az-zait became azeite (olive oil) and as-sukkar became açúcar (sugar). The clip tours the coast from north to south, as praias do norte, do centro, do litoral alentejano e do Algarve, in slow, clear Portuguese from Portugal.