Barlavento Islands

17°00′N 24°00′W / 17.000°N 24.000°W / 17.000; -24.000

The Barlavento Islands (Portuguese: Ilhas de Barlavento, literally, the Windward Islands) is the northern group of the Cape Verde archipelago.^[1] It presents as two sub-groups:

• in the west: Santo Antão, São Vicente,^[a] São Nicolau, Santa Luzia and islets Branco and Raso are volcanic and somewhat rocky yet quite widely capable of supporting semi-arid agriculture.
• in the east: Sal^[b] and Boa Vista^[c] are lightly-hilled, desert islands whose economies were based on salt and rely on fishing and tourism, having more in common with the Sotavento island Maio.

The total land mass is 2,239 km² (864 sq mi).^[1] Spanning from longitude -22.67 to -25.36 (implying west of the Prime Meridian), the group sits in the Trade winds, specifically at the optional southern turn or tack termed by European sailors a key point of the Volta do Mar. The islands are west of Cap-Vert at -17.31 west, in turn the westernmost point of Africa on the outskirts of Dakar (the capital of Senegal).

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