This was the fifth excavation that took place on the side and it helped to shed new light on the monument which covers a whopping 600 square meters. The campaign was made in partnership with the Innsbruck Institute and it relied on help from volunteers from both the University of the Algarve as well as the Algarve Archaeologists Association.

According to a press release, the artifacts found have confirmed the timeline previously established in regards to the site. The castle was occupied for four generations for a period of about 100 years, and parts of the outer walls were destroyed when the region’s municipal road was built.

This fifth excavation surfaced more object than the previous ones, one particular find which deserves special mention is the top half of a Punic amphora made in the Cadiz region of Spain, which was later reused in the castle. Further tests will be conducted to see what its function was.

The Punics were a group of western Semitic-speaking people who are thought to have descended from Phoenician settlers and North African Berbers.

The data that was retrieved as a result of the excavation will be thoroughly analyzed in the months to come and it is expected to offer archaeologists a deeper understanding of this important and ancient monument. The overarching aim of the research is to make it possible to publicly present the Roman building, which dates back to the first or second century BC.

The municipal authority also hope that this research will help put the Castelinho dos Mouros on the region’s cultural map so as to attract more visitors.

Those who want to get  there can easily reach the place with Algarve car hire services.

The auction will be taking place in the town of Vilamoura, when the New York Stock Exchange will be listing that a real estate investment firm will be conducting an auction of 42 luxury resort homes

The President of the KW Auction Group – the group that will be staging the auction – said that he was quite confident that all the homes will be sold off because he felt the current market conditions will not play a major role in the projected success of the auction process.

The auction will be taking place on the 22^nd of June in Vilamoura, and based on past auctions, it is projected to be a success, or at least this is what the President of the real estate investment firm is saying. He did continue on to say that real estate auctions are not uncommon in developed countries regardless of the overall market conditions.

These luxury Algarve homes will have no starting bids, so the auction is meant to provide a great opportunity for year-round and resort homebuyers as well as investors to get some great properties at excellent prices. The home types that are to be auctioned off include one, two and three bedroom apartments.

It appears that five of the homes will be sold to the Highest Bidder with all the bids being subject to the acceptance of the Seller. The residences are located in four separate home collections: Monte Laguna, L’Orangerie, The Victoria Gardens and Sunset Villas, all of them featuring green areas alongside community pools.

The apartments range in size from 99 to 190 square meters.

As opposed to most other potential visiting places that you’ll find in the Algarve, Silves is set on the banks of the Arade River, a charming town peppered with orange and lemon trees and deeply steeped in history.

Actually the town was a very affluent Moorish capital in the past, it was known as Xelb back then, and it was so important because it was the main access to inland Algarve, thanks to the river. Unfortunately that did not last very long because the river is now too silted up to allow for large vessels to use it.

In any case, what you definitely must take away from visiting this town is its most prominent monument, the Castelo de Silves.

This is now the best preserved castle in the entire region – so just for that you should schedule an Algarve low cost transfer to Silves, but that is not all.

The castle sits upon the hilltop, overlooking the town, and beside it you’ll find the local Cathedral. Going up to the castle will offer you some spectacular views from the battlements. The castle has eleven towers, two of which are barbicans, and somehow the thick walls have survived, enclosing an area of 12,000 square meters. Four of the eleven were rebuilt during the 14^th and 15^th centuries feature Gothic doorways. During the Moorish period, the castle was the residence of the lord of the city.

The nearby Cathedral of Silves is one of the few remaining Gothic monuments in Algarve that still have ancient tombs.