Queluz, Portugal 3.74

Queluz is a city located in the municipality of Sintra, in the Greater Lisbon Area of Portugal. It is formed from the urbanized areas of the civil parishes of Massamá, Monte Abraão and Queluz, but also influences the development of surrounding parishes, such as Almargem do Bispo, Belas, Barcarena and Casal de Cambra. With an urban population of 78,273 inhabitants, it is one of the countries top ten urban agglomerations, and classified on 24 July 1997, under Decree-Law No 88/97, as a city.HistoryThe origin of the name Queluz has been disputed over time. The prevailing thesis, by David Lim and José Pedro Machado, suggests that the name had its origin in the Arabic terms câ (for tight valley) and Llûs (meaning almond), affirming the suggestion that it was in the The Valley of the Almond Tree. However, another suggestion, has it as forming from the Mountain of Light, Monte Abraão (the Mount of Abraham), where worship of the sun was common.Human occupation of theis area dates back to the Late Neolithic or early Chalcolithic (between the third and fourth millennium B.C.), owing to the number of Neolithic monuments and vestiges from abandoned settlements unearthed by archeologists. These earliest date established to this settlement was 4200 B.C., followed by comparable settlements in 2000 B.C. (in what today is the civil parish of Massamá).