Sagres Point

Given the dangers of being blown onto the coastal rocks, captains preferred to wait in the lee of the point until favourable winds allowed them to continue.

In fact Cape St. Vincent is more westerly, but because it is further north, and Strabo's map of the Iberian Peninsula is rotated clockwise, bringing the Pyrenees into a north–south line, it could have been taken as further east.

The most westerly point of the Iberian Peninsula and of the European continent is Cabo da Roca, near Sintra; the southernmost, Punta de Tarifa, in Andalusia.

Strabo reports (Book 3.1.4) as follows: The region adjacent to this cape they call in the Latin tongue Cuneum, which signifies a wedge.

Those who go thither to view it stay at a neighbouring village overnight, and proceed to the place on the morrow, carrying water with them, as there is none to be procured there.No part of Cape St. Vincent fits this description, but on the eastern side of Sagres Point is a harbor, Baleeira, port of the modern town of Sagres, protected by four small islands in a line (the tiny Martinhal Islets) visible in satellite imagery.

At the far eastern end of the beach of Martinhal, erosion of the cliffs has exposed a series of Roman pottery kilns for fabricating transport amphoras and roof tiles.

When Henry the Navigator commenced his explorations, which would initiate the Portuguese Age of Discoveries, at his Vila do Infante, Sagres peninsula lacked the necessary requirements for such large undertakings.

Fresh water was scarce, agriculture was minimal, there was a shortage of wood for shipbuilding, no deep-water landing site, and the population was small.