Study of the geomorphological and archaeological aspects of Sintra area (Portugal) as contribution to its tourist appraisal and promotion

The Portughese town of Sintra is an UNESCO world heritage site for itscultural and environmental aspects. The town is located 30 km from Lisbon and 15km from the Atlantic Ocean, and is a touristic site in every seasons mainly for itsarchitectural qualities. This work describes the geomorphological and archaeologicalaspects of the town and the surrounding Serra de Sintra in order to give an addedvalue to tourist appraisal and promotion of the area. Serra de Sintra is an ellipticigneous massif 10 km E-W and 5 km N-S, 300-500 m above sea level. The geologicalstructure is complex but it can be simplified as a core of sienites surrounded bygranites intruded in a limestone plateau. The morphogenetic processes, besidecommon landforms such as narrow valleys, scarps and ridges, shaped a variety ofparticular granite morphologies such as round block fields, inselbergs, castle koppies,etc…. The most spectacular ones have been described and classified as geosites in adata-base. The oldest archaeological remains dates to the Mesolithic, but the area hasbeen extensively occupied during the Neolitic/Calcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Inhistorical times Romans, Visigots and Arabs left some interesting architectural andlinguistic marks. All the archaeological sites have been classified according tobibliographic, museal data and field surveys. They are also all included in a data-base.GeoArchaeo-Tourist maps at 1:25,000 and 1.10,000 scales of the Serra de Sintra andSintra town are the information results collected in the geomorphological andcultural data-bases. The maps have been implemented, by means of an ArcGIScomputer programme, integrating geological, geomorphological, archaeological andhistorical aspects with the tourist infrastructures (information points, parking areas,accommodations, panoramic points, etc.) in order to obtain documents readable, simple, clear but scientifically accurate also for non-expert users. This study could besuitably simplified and summarized in a guide book, with enclosed GeoArchaeo-Tourist maps, as a contribution to improve the knowledge and appraisal of the Sintraterritory also for its landscape and archaeological aspects.