Prince Henry's fort of Sagres, at the southernmost tip of Portugal, included a giant pebbled compass rose 130 feet in diameter

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyandpeter/276314314/
(downloaded June 2007)

Starting in the 1430's, *Prince Henry the Navigator* played a crucial role in encouraging early Portuguese exploration of West Africa and beyond

Source: ebay, June 2007

João Gonçalves Zarco (1390-1467)  reached Porto Santo in 1419, and Madeira in 1420

Source: ebay, June 2007

Nuno Tristão, another of the earliest of these explorers, began exploring the West African coast in 1441, spent time in Guinea, and was killed during a slave-capturing raid in 1446

Source: ebay, June 2007

In 1488, Bartholomew Diaz became the first European since ancient times to sail around the Cape of Good Hope

Source: ebay, Jan. 2008

Pedro Álvares Cabral (c.1467-c.1520), da Gama's contemporary, discovered the sea route to Brazil in 1500

Source: ebay, June 2007

Meantime, Christopher Colombus, though not Portuguese, was engaged in his own visionary version of the same kind of quest

Source: ebay, July 2007

And finally, with Magellan, the Portuguese circumnavigated the globe

Source: ebay, July 2007

The ships-- and the astrolabes-- that made it all possible

Source: ebay, June 2007

A carrack in full sail is used to sum up the "Century of Discoveries"

Source: ebay, Mar. 2008