page_title: Caniçal
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Caniçal / Geography
caption_attribution_description: &#160;Portugal, Ponta de São Lourenço
context_page_description: Caniçal is a civil parish in the municipality of Machico in the Portuguese island of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 3,924, in an area of 11.85 km². Equidistant from Funchal and Santana, the community is connected to these centres by the Regional 109 roadway. Caniçal is now the principal cargo port in Madeira.
context_section_description: Caniçal borders the municipal seat of Machico on its western frontier, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the remaining borders. The roughly escarped terrain is prominent in the western border, where altitudes reach 800 metres above sea level and ravines are semi-active or dry year round. The urbanized and residential lands are located in a semi-gently sloping central area, while to the eastern coast, the land extends into a long narrow isthmus at Ponta de São Lourenço. Although most of the mountainous western region is forested, most of the remaining areas of the parish are populated with smaller species of herbaceous bushes, trees and pasturelands, until the Ponta de São Lourenço where vegetation is limited to sparse low-lying grasses.
caption: The arm of Ponta de São Lourenço along the northern coast of Caniçal
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