Buildings & City: Curacao From Above, desktop wallpaper nr. 31173

Cura�ao (Dutch: Cura�ao, Papiamentu: K�rsou) is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The island area of Cura�ao (Dutch: Eilandgebied Cura�ao, Papiamentu: Teritorio Insular di K�rsou), which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Cura�ao ("Little Cura�ao"), is one of five island areas of the Netherlands Antilles, and as such, is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its capital is Willemstad.

Cura�ao is the largest and most populous of the three so called ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura�ao) of the Lesser Antilles, specifically the Leeward Antilles. It has a land area of 444 square kilometers (171 square miles). As of 1 Jan. 2008 (4 years ago), it had a population of 140,796.

Origin of the name Cura�ao

The origin of the name Cura�ao is still under debate. One explanation is that it is derived from the Portuguese word for heart (cora��o), referring to the island as a centre in trade, or it could mean healing (cura��o) for the plants that grow on the island. Spanish traders took the name over as Cura�ao, which was followed by the Dutch. Another explanation is that Cura�ao was the name the indigenous peoples of Cura�ao had used to label themselves (Joubert and Van Buurt, 1994 (18 years ago)). This theory is supported by early Spanish accounts, which refer to the indigenous peoples as "Indios Cura�aos".

The most popular theory is that the Spanish named the island "Corazon" (Spanish for "heart") for its heart shape, which later became "Cura�ao", derived from the Portuguese word for heart, "Cora��o".

Whatever the origin of the name, after the year 1525 (487 years ago) the island appeared on Spanish maps as "Cura�ote," "Curasaote," and "Curasaore." By the seventeenth century the island was generally known on all maps as "Cura�ao" or "Curazao".

On a map created by Hieronymus Cock in 1562 (450 years ago) in Antwerp, the island was referred to as Quracao.

The name "Cura�ao" has become associated with a particular shade of blue, and is sometimes used as an adjective, because of the deep-blue liqueur named "Blue Cura�ao".