Distrito de Leiria

District of Leiria - Estremadura

The Distrito de Leiria (District of Leiria) in named after the city Leiria, the district capital and largest city of the district. The district is historically known as Estremadura, although the borders of Estremadura were slightly different.

Located at the center of Portugal, it is also the center of caves. Most caves of Portugal and also most show caves are located here. The southern part of the area is covered by the Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros. It covers the Mesozoic Limestone Massif, with Jurassic, with predominantly Dogger (Middle Jurassic), but also Cretaceous and Miocene formations in the south. The sedimentary layer are mostly horizontal, with some thrusts, most of them nortwest to southeast. There are much fewer but quite important thrust in a right angle to them. Subunits are the Serra dos Candeeiros to the west, the Sto. António to the center and south and the S. Mamede plateau and the Aire mountain range, to the north and east. Those subunits are separated by three depressions, the Mendiga depression, the Minde-Mira polje and the Alvados depression, which are a result of the faster erosion of the fractured zones. It is a typical karst with dolines, poljes and dry valley. In total there are more than 1,500 known caves.