Madeira (port. Madeira - wood) is an autonomous region of Portugal, located on the eponymous archipelago in the northern Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1000 km northwest of Portugal and 500 km west of the African coast. Madeira enters the EU as a special remote territory. The archipelago consists of two inhabited islands: Madeira and Porto Santo, and two remote groups of small, uninhabited islands, seabirds, the Dessertas Islands and the Selvage Islands. Madeira was discovered by Portuguese sailors between about 1418 and 1420. The discovery of the island, initiated by Henry the navigator, is considered one of the first discoveries of the century of the Great geographical discoveries.