Naturtejo Geopark Territory

Description of the territory
Naturtejo matches with the area of Castelo Branco, Idanha-a Nova, Nisa, Oleiros, Proença-a-Nova and Vila Velha de Ródão municipalities, with a total of 4617km2.

Orography
The area is composed, in an orographic point of view, by vast planes organized in Alpine-related demi-horsts and grabens bordered by active faults, with altitudes such as 250-300m, 400-450m and 900-1000m, with an altimetry increasing to North and culminating in Gardunha, with 1227m the highest point.
The topographical monotony is cut by local residual relieves with a sedimentary (such as Magarefa, Castelo Branco, or Murracha, Idanha-a-Nova) and plutonic (as granite inselberge, such as Monsanto, Idanha-a-Nova) origin and by tectonic-derived alignments like fault escarpments (which is a fine example the Ponsul fault scarp with 85 km) and quartzite ridges found all over the region (Penha Garcia, Monforte da Beira, Castelo Branco, Serra da Pedragueira, Serra do Muradal and Serra do Ródão). Plain areas are also cut by the Lower Tejo deep fluvial network incision, the biggest river in the Iberian Peninsula. Naturtejo is limited at North by the deep valley of the meandering Zêzere river, the Tejo most important tributary in Portugal. Other important rivers that cross and help to limit the territory are the Ponsul, the Ocreza, the Erges (in Tejo right bank), the Sever and the Ribeira de Nisa.

Weather
The weather is deeply influenced by orography, being typically Mediterranean, with no influences from the Atlantic humidity, characterized by long and hot summers almost without rain and mild winters with strong downpour. In the mountains, the winter temperatures rarely goes under -5ºC; In summer, the general temperatures frequently exceed 30ºC, not being rare the days with temperatures beyond 40ºC.

Population
The population in Naturtejo municipalities sums 96307 inhabitantes (data from 2001-2002) and a population density of 23,1 inhab./km2. The region is composed by one city capital of district (Castelo Branco), 5 towns capital of municipalities (Idanha-a-Nova, Nisa, Oleiros, Proença-a-Nova and Vila Velha de Ródão), 74 parish villages and more than four hundred small localities.

Economical activities
The main economical activities in the region are agriculture and commerce. Tourism started recently, clustered in urban areas (municipalities) and in towns with the national status of Historical Villages (Monsanto and Idanha-a-Velha), as well as in medieval fortified villages such as Penha Garcia, Amieira do Tejo, etc. Stands out the thermal tourism, with the existence of Monfortinho Thermal Complex (Idanha-a-Nova), very well known in Portugal and one of the most technological advanced in Europe and Fadagosa Thermal facilities in Nisa.

Geology
In this wide region ruled by a cultural heterogeneity based on historical and even natural criteria, Geology appears as a levelling element, since the geological evolution of this region was ruled, grosso modo, by the same fundamental stages which, through millions of years, have moulded the landscape. The elements that have built landscape are ubiquitous, although creators of diversity: Wide areas flattened with Mesocenozoic polygenic evolution over a major Proterozoic basement (Beiras Group); numerous residual relieves, which ex-libris are the Ordovician quartzites appalachian-style relieves and the late-Variscan granite inselberge; intramountain basins with alluvial to fluvial coarse sediments deposited during the Alpine Orogeny paroxysms; hydrographical systems, deeply carved during the climate crisis of the Pleistocene and induced by important neotectonics in the fragile domain, which broke the landscape in a block succession and motivates the thermal
richness of the region.