Regional setting

Cape Espichel is located within the Lusitanian Basin, a regional geologic feature formed during the opening of the North Atlantic, a process which began in the Triassic and continues still today.^[2]

Tectonics and geomorphology

As the incipient North Atlantic Ocean began to spread, Portugal was then located on the eastern margin of the seawater-flooded rift valley. The extensional tectonic setting formed large normal faults during this process, including the Arrabida Fault, whose fault plane dips steeply towards the north, and whose trace is nowadays underwater, just south of the cape, tracing approximately from west to the east, including south of the Arrábida chain.
During the Cenozoic, due to how, given enough tectonic plate displacement, the geometry of tectonic plates moving away from a divergent boundary at one location on a spherical globe must eventually force convergence and compression someplace else (due to the lack of further free surface area on the globe to allow for indefinite motion), and having occurred sufficient extensional tectonic motion, the local tectonic setting switched from extensional to compressional. As a result, the Arrábida Fault eventually reversed motion direction, becoming a reverse fault.
As the crust was regionally compressed from the north and south directions, the northern fault block rode up the fault plane, folding the rock strata upwards in the process, and forming a partial fault-bend fold, whose top continuously eroded. As a result, a geomorphological scarp of dramatic maritime cliffs formed. The folding mechanism produced the steep northwards dip observable in the strata at the Espichel location, and the dip progressively levels towards horizontality northwards from the cape end and away from the Arrábida Fault's plane trace.

Stratigraphy

The geology at Cape Espichel is of utmost stratigraphic relevance.^[3] The cliff faces cut through, and are constituted of, limestone, clayey limestone, marl and sandstone strata of Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous age, which were deposited in different types of coastal environments.^[3] In excellent geologic succession, progressing upwards in time from the cape end northwards, the dipping strata are displayed along the western cliff faces as a natural cross-section,^[3] especially impressive when seen from the sea.

Paleolithic

Prehistorical archaeological evidence indicates that the Espichel area was inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups as early as the Paleolithic period. The discovery of stone tools and other artifacts in various archaeological sites in the area provides evidence of human occupation dating back further than ten thousand years.^[7]

Neolithic

Due to its topography, Cape Espichel may have been used as a division between the realms of the living and the dead. Dating from the 6th/5th millennium, some traces of funerary practices were found. Several symbolic funerary artefacts have been found in the caves facing the sea, located on the south slope. Ceramic and osteological remains attest to this spiritual universe, and at Cape Espichel there are several locations with such materials from this period.^[7]

Roman Empire

During the times when Roman settlements persisted in the Iberian peninsula, the Roman presence on the cape was limited, perhaps due to how the Romans considered capes to be sacred locations, where the gods met at night. In Ora maritima, Avienius named Cape Espichel, Cabo Cêmpsico, a name possibly associated with the peoples that lived in the vicinity. Later, the geographer Strabo called this area Promontorium Barbaricum.^[8]

Umayyad Caliphate

Though the Umayyad Caliphate extended over the territory of Espichel, there has never been found any archeological evidence of Muslim settlements. The local toponymy, however, includes a few names with Arabic roots, such as Azóia, the nearest village to the cape, which derived from Al Zawiya (meaning hermitage).^[8]

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, various legends attracted people to the site; it was a crucible of Portuguese nationalism, when on 29 July 1180, on the waters of Cape Espichel, D. Fuas Roupinho was able to obtain the nation's first naval victory against the caliphate.^[8]

Other significant events