The island of FOGO west of Santiago, is almost round in shape, and looks as if it is just a volcanic mountain. The surface area is 476 Km2 and, although only the fourth biggest island of the Archipelago, it is the highest with the top of the volcano reaching a height of 2829 m. The volcano is in fact the main tourist attraction of the island. The volcanic cone rises from a sort of plateau about 8 km in diameter, called CHÃ DAS CALDEIRAS the walls on the western side reach almost 1000 m and end in a crater 500 meters in diameter and 180 meters deep. This is truly the most spectacular scenery in the whole of the Archipelago. The original volcanic cone must, at one time, have reached a height of 3500 m. The volcano was active right up to the XVIII century, when the main cone ceased activity and all that remained as testimony to it were the volcanic vapors and deposits of sulphur. There have been sporadic eruptions and the last one was in 1951, when the lava poured out of one of the two chimneys on the southern side of the volcano.
Tourist information about another destination in Cape Verde Islands