The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa.
The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres are of volcanic origin and while three of them (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation. Due to the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green, as the country’s name suggests (verde is Portuguese for “green”). The name of the country stems instead from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalese coast.
The largest island, both in size and population, is Santiago, which hosts the nation’s capital, Praia.