Ponta Preta (Southern Sal)
| Ponta Preta do Sul | |
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Ponta Preta, its location is in the further southwest of the island
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 Ponta Preta do Sul
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| Location | Southern Sal, Cape Verde |
| Coordinates | 16°36′21″N 22°55′47″W / 16.6057°N 22.9297°WCoordinates: 16°36′21″N 22°55′47″W / 16.6057°N 22.9297°W |
| Offshore water bodies | Atlantic Ocean |
| Length | 1 km |
| Area | 500 ha |
Ponta Preta, as there is one in the north of Sal, it is sometimes known as Ponta Preta do Sul is a headland in the southwest of the island of Sal in Cape Verde. It is about 2 km west of the town Santa Maria and about 1 km of Ponta do Sinó and its lighthouse. It also has its beach named Praia da Ponta Preta which covers 3 km of the southwesternmost coastline and is about 100 to 200 meters and around 300 meter at the headland, it strecthes up to the vicinity of Ribeira do Algodeiro and its tiny settlement. Praia de Santa Maria is its nearest beaches bordering near the southernmost point of the island.
The etymology of the name is Portuguese meaning black tip, hence its brown to black colored rocks founded when the point was named, also its bushes and grasses that are colored brown or black.
Around 20000 to 18000 BC, it was the southernmost area of the island, before that, the area was the Atlantic Ocean. Marine abrasion enlarged the sands and pushed the land south. During the middle part of the Last Ice Age, the point was between 1-2 km west from its current location.
Along with the whole island, the area was first recordedly explored on December 3, 1460.
In 2003, the southernmost part of the beach had built hotels in the area and some of them were completed as early as 2005.
In around 2007 and 2009, new hotels, resorts and villas had been developed and a secondary road was completed and with a few roundabouts connects the road connecting the town and Ponta do Sinó and the Espargos-Santa Maria Road. Desert sands and bushes remain in the mid portion of the area of the point. One of its bushes is Arthrocnemum franzii described in 2016 south of the point.
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Wikipedia