History of Madeira Photo Gallery

Today, Madeira's levada system is a combination of shaded forest walks, tunnels, aqueducts and mountainside hugging pathways. However the first levadas were built in the 1450's by slave and convict labour and were initially constructed on the southern half of the island only. By the start of the twentieth century, the system of irrigation channels had expanded to some 200 waterways flowing in all a total of approximately 1,000 km. Today the system, widely employed by tourists as hiking thoroughfares, covers over 2,000 km, 40 km of which is tunnels.