Only for the ones what are in good shape, the ypoungest and the adventurers???

When approaching Madeira, by  air or by sea, you will see the uneven lands and come to the conclusion that walking along the island is just for the ones that they are in good physical form, the newest and adventurous...  well it is not like this!!  
If you haven´t yet walked along the wonderful landscapes of the island, then still you  haven´t seen  best of the Madeira. The Levadsa are generally accessible, easy to locate and, in most of the places, you can go for a walk without great effort. 
 
Such  irrigations channels ( Levadas)  are not exclusive of  Madeira: however what is unique is its accessibility and extension. It is enough to venture just a little bit  outside of the main highways to begin to appreciate the myriad of aqueducts of Madeira - for its beauty and conception ingeniousness and for the courage and necessary determination to sum up the concept until reaching its present glory. The system of irrigation of the island is composed actualmente by some impressive 2150 km of channels, including 40km of tunnels - and the work began there centuries ago.
The first povoation of Madeira to cultivate the lower coasts of the south of the island, cutting steam fields). Working with contractors (that per times used hard-working slaves or convicts) they built the first small levasds that transported water of the nascent  above  of the hills to their lands. The first legislation to regulate the use of those levadas  and the rights of water dates of the second half of the XV century. 
In the beginnings of the XX century, there were about 200 of these levadas, coiling for more than 1000km. Many belonged to private people and the undisciplined appropriation of water did that the much most valuable of the island was frequently distributed in an unjust way. In fact, in the middle of the decade of 1930, two thirds of the land  of the island was cultivated - and just half of those were irrigated. 
Only the State possessed the necessary economical means to implement a wide scale construction program in and the authority order a more equal system of distribution. 
Because the truth is that there was a lot of water for irrigation and torrents that was enouth to generate all the necessary energy. The clouds dragged to the island by the predominant winds of northeast are caught by the central mountainous chain, reaching  2 rain meters a year, in the north, while in the southern coast the dry time can last up to six months.