Thursday Thirteen--9th Edition

Thirteen Facts about PORTUGAL

1. Portugal was a monarchy till the year of 1910.Afonso Henriques was the first Portuguese King;
2. Portugal has a population of 10.6 million people;
3. Portugal is divided in 8 regions;
4. In the year of 1755 a huge earthquake, followed by a Tsunami, destroyed Lisbon;
5. Portugal has a great Roman, Celtic and Moorish heritage.You can find ancient roman tracks and cities a bit all over the country.You will notice that Portuguese people up north have lighter skin tone,blond hair and blue eyes and that's due to our Celtic heritage.Down south you can see several Moorish castles, people have a darker skin tone brown hair and dark eyes.You will also notice that we have lots of Portuguese words that start with "Al"(such as Algarve, Alentejo...).That's due to our Moorish heritage;
6. In the Azores Islands you'll find one very important US military field.The Lajes Field;
7. Portugal only has one terrestrial border.Spain is our "neighbor" country;
8. Gulliver's Travels with Ted Danson was shot in Lisbon.Remember this arch?
9. Portugal has no life threatening wildlife (there's no reports what so ever of people killed by sharks,snakes,spiders or anything )
10. Joaquim de Almeida is the most world known Portuguese actor.You can see him in several big movies such as Pulp Fiction and The Xango of Bakerstreet.He also features in the tv show 24;
11. Fado it's our icon when it comes to music.Brazil has Samba.Argentina has Tango.Portugal has Fado (translation for that is Faith/Destiny);
12. In Lisbon you can find a bridge identical to the Golden Gate Bridge, but smaller.They both were made by the same architect;
13. In the south side of the bridge you can see that we also have a "Cristo Rei" similar to the "Cristo Redentor"in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.

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