Serra da Estrela is the highest mountain range in Continental Portugal.
It includes mainland Portugal's highest point at 1,993 metres (6,539 feet) above mean sea level.
The mountain range is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) long and is 30 km (19 mi) across at its widest point. It is formed from a huge granite ridge that once formed the southern frontier of the country. Due to its bizarrely shaped crags and gorges, mountain streams and lakes, beautiful forests and magnificent views, the area ranks among Portugal’s outstanding scenic attractions.
A legend associated with the mountain is mentioned in chapter 41 of the American literary classic, Moby-Dick:
"... the prodigies related in old times of the inland Strello mountain in Portugal (near whose top there was said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface)..."
Archaeological investigations have allowed a picture of life during the fifth millennium BC, the Early Neolithic to emerge, where small communities sustained themselves by small game hunting, the gathering of acorn and other winter fruits, and migratory pastoralism. The raising of sheep and goats, introduced to the region by the first Neolithic settlers - suggests that spring and summer were spent on high ground pastures and winter on the lower grounds of the river valleys. The significance of the Serra da Estrela in Neolithic culture can be seen in the discovery that megaliths in the Mondego River basin were predominantly built with an alignment that allowed the mountain range to be seen from within the inner chamber. At the same time the rise of Aldebaran, the brightest star of Taurus, behind the mountains could also be seen and its Heliacal rising in late April/early May could have been used as a temporal marker for the movement to the high pastures of Serra da Estrela. This archaeological narrative closely mirrors the local folklore that explains the name of the mountain range.
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serra_da_Estrela
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