Map of The Algarve Region

The Algarve Region is Portugal's best known internationally, mainly because of its climate and its beaches. Historically, it is the Portuguese region which was longest occupied by the Moors, from whom it gets its name - they called Portugal Al'Garb Al'Andalus (West of Al-Andalus), and in the same way as Andalucia changed from the whole of Spain to become the region we know today, Al'Garb shrank to something like its current shape. It is interesting that the Algarve is administratively synonymous with the District of Faro, its capital, which also owes its name to the Moors, who called it "Faraon," ("the Knights' Settlement). Geographically, it is separated from Spain to the east by the River Guadiana, and from the rest of Portugal by the sweeping plains of the Alentejo region.