Flores Island (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈfloɾɨʃ]) is an island of the Western group (Grupo Ocidental) of the Azores. It has an area of 143 km², a population of approximately 3907 inhabitants, and, together with Corvo Island of the western archipelago, lies within the North American Plate. It has the westernmont point of Portugal in Monchique Islet and, if considered part of Europe (though it sits on the North American Plate), it is the westernmost point of the continent as well. It has been referred to as the Ilha Amarelo Torrado (English: Yellow/Auburn Island) by marketing and due to the association with poet Raul Brandão, but it is well known for its abundance of flowers, hence its Portuguese name of Flores.
Some early accounts existed of the "(seven) islands of the Azores and two islands of Flores" (referring to the islands of Flores and Corvo), but no "official discovery" occurred until the mid-15th century. The island of Flores was discovered in the late summer of 1452 by the navigator Diogo de Teive and his son João de Teive, and first noted by the pilot Pêro Velasco to Christopher Columbus during his voyages. For his reward, Teive received the concession of the sugar monopoly on Madeira.
Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population was 1,831,000 in the 2010 census and the largest town is Maumere. Flores is Portuguese for "flowers".
Flores is located east of Sumbawa and Komodo and west of Lembata and the Alor Archipelago. To the southeast is Timor. To the south, across the Sumba strait, is Sumba and to the north, beyond the Flores Sea, is Sulawesi.
On 12 December 1992, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred, killing 2,500 people in and around Maumere, including islands off the North coast.
In September 2003, at Liang Bua Cave in western Flores, paleoanthropologists discovered small skeletons that they described as a previously unknown hominin species, Homo floresiensis. These are informally named hobbits and appear to have stood about 1 m (3.3 ft) tall. The most complete individual (LB1) is dated as 18,000 years old.
San José de Flores is a station on Line A of the Buenos Aires Underground. The station connects with Flores station on the Sarmiento Line commuter rail service.
Media related to San José de Flores (Buenos Aires Underground) at Wikimedia Commons
Coordinates: 34°37′43″S 58°27′52″W / 34.62861°S 58.46444°W / -34.62861; -58.46444
Flores is a Spanish and Portuguese word meaning "flowers."
Flores may refer to: