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
History of Madeira Sugarcane cultivation and the sugar production industry developed until the 17th century. Since the 17th century, Madeira's most important product has been its wine, sugar production having since moved on to Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, and elsewhere. Madeira wine was perhaps the most popular luxury beverage in the colonial Western Hemisphere during the 17th and 18th centuries. The British Empire occupied Madeira as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, a friendly occupation which concluded in 1814 when the island was returned to Portugal, and the British did much to popularise Madeira wine. When, after the death of king John