The Sotavento islands is the southern island group of Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

 archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

.

There are four main islands: Brava

Brava, Cape Verde

Brava is an island in Cape Verde. It is the smallest inhabited island, but at the same time the greenest, of Cape Verde, in the Sotavento group. First settled in the 1540s, its population grew after Mount Fogo on neighbouring Fogo erupted in 1675...

, Fogo

Fogo, Cape Verde

Fogo is an island in the Sotavento group of Cape Verde. It is the most prominent of the group, rising to nearly 3,000 m above sea level at Pico do Fogo.-Geography:...

 and Santiago

Santiago, Cape Verde

Santiago , or Santiagu in Cape Verdean Creole, is the largest island of Cape Verde, its most important agricultural centre and home to half the nation’s population. At the time of Darwin's voyage it was called St. Jago....

 are rocky and volcanic agricultural islands, with the longest histories of human inhabitance and densest populations in the Cape Verdes. Maio

Maio, Cape Verde

Maio is the easternmost of the Sotavento islands of Cape Verde. Maio is located south of the islands of Boa Vista and east of Santiago. The island is also known for its large forest, which is unusual for Cape Verde.-Geography:The island covers an area of 269 km²...

 lies to the east and is a flat desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

 island whose economy was primarily based on salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

, giving it more in common with Sal

Sal, Cape Verde

Sal is an island in Cape Verde. It belongs to the northern group of islands, called Barlavento. The island is composed by a single administrative division, the Sal municipality. The island is home to Amílcar Cabral International Airport, the main airport of Cape Verde.- Geography :The island is...

 and Boa Vista

Boa Vista, Cape Verde

Boa Vista is the easternmost island of Cape Verde. It is located in the Barlavento group of the archipelago. The island is known for marine turtles and traditional music, as well as its ultramarathon and its sand dunes and beaches...

 among the Barlavento.

The islets Ilhéu Grande

Ilhéu Grande

Ilhéu Grande is part of the Ilhéus Secos islet group. Its location is in the west and it represents the largest islet of the chain. The etymology or its origin of name is the big islet in which is the largest islet of the chain...

, Ilhéu de Cima

Ilhéu de Cima

Ilhéu de Cima is part of the Ilhéus Secos islet group. Its location is in the east and it represents the second largest islet of the chain. They are administratively a part of the municipality of Brava...

, and the minor islets Ilhéu do Rei, Ilhéu Sapado and Ilhéu Luís Carneiro make up the Ilhéus Secos

Ilhéus Secos

Ilhéus Secos or Ilhéus do Rombo are a group of islets in Cape Verde located due north at about 7 to 8 km from the nearby island of Brava. The two major islets of the chain include Ilhéu Grande and Ilhéu de Cima...

 (or Ilhéus do Rombo) islets group north of Brava. The little Ilhéu de Santa Maria lies off Santiago.