Madeira Caldeirão do Inferno", which should not be attempted by hikers prone to vertigo or without torches and helmets. The "Levada do Caniçal" is a much easier walk, running from Maroços to the "Caniçal Tunnel". It is known as the "mimosa levada", because "mimosa" trees, (the colloquial name for invasive acacia) are found all along the route. Administratively, Madeira (with a population of 267,302 inhabitants in 2011) and covering an area of is organised into eleven municipalities: Funchal is the capital and principal city of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, located along the southern coast of the island of Madeira. It
Geology of Madeira to the end of the Pleistocene ice ages means that some Quaternary marine terraces are as much as 100 meters above sea level. Groundwater on Madeira is held in fractured volcanic rock aquifers, with widely varying transmissivity and dissolved mineral content. Water is generally slightly acidic to slightly alkaline and cold, although there are small quantities of thermal water near fault zones. Much of the water on the island comes from high-discharge springs. Leptosols, cambisols and andisols are the three main soil types on the island. Madeira has few natural resources and no mining, aside from small-scale extraction of sand