Let’s discover Formentera. What do you know about this island?

Perhaps you think you know all of Spain. Could you possibly point  the location of Barcelona in the map? What about Sevilla? Would you be able to recognize the island of Ibiza? Okay, maybe there are are too many questions, but if you think you know the answer to all of them, we’ll test you with one more: do you know about the island of Formentera?

What is the origin of the name of the island of Formentera?

There are many speculations about the name and origin. Historians and linguists have tried to find the reason that this Mediterranean paradise has this name.

Although its ancient name was Ophiusa, the arrival of the Romans led to the change to Colubraria.

This name meant “Snake Island”, but there is no evidence of the existence of such reptiles in Formentera.

Nevertheless there’s another island, close to València, named Columbretes and this one has more possibilities to be the “Snake Island”.

Other names have been considered, like Koyunluca, during the invasion of the Turkish, and that name meant Island of the sheeps. But certainly it seems quite improbable that this has derivated in the name of  the modern Formentera.

So… what’s at the end the origin of this island? That’s a mistery.

Another mystery is

Why Formentera’s waters are so clear?

Formentera has the clearest waters due to the extensive banks of posidonia, an alga that the farmers of the island have used in old times to make the mangers of the sheep.

More curiosities? Keep reading this blog!