Cape Verde · CV

Ribeira da Cidade

Ribeira da Cidade is the local name for the seasonal watercourse that runs through old Cidade Velha on Santiago island — the final stretch of the Ribeira Grande de Santiago, one of Cape Verde's few valley streams and the very feature that gave the first European colonial town in the tropics its original name, Ribeira Grande. Rising high in the central mountains near Monte Tchota and gathering through groves of baobab, mango and former sugar land, it reaches the coast at the bay beneath the Royal Fortress of São Filipe. Following it from the old quarter to the Atlantic takes you straight through the living heart of a UNESCO World Heritage site.