Portugal has always had a distinguishing interest in discovery and journeys to the unknown. Underlying the power which this small country attained in the 15th and 16th centuries was this curiosity. This is also why Lisbon is called a melancholic city. People who sailed to undiscovered places departed from here: the city has a melancholic aura due to the numerous stories of those who sailed away, but never returned. The sound of Fado songs echoing in the city expresses the longing for the ones who could not return. The Statues of the Portuguese Explorers from front to back: Prince Henry (not an explorer, but the royalty who sponsored these discoveries), Vasco de Gama (explorer who discovered the sea route to India), Pedro Alvares Cabral (explorer of Brazil), Ferdinand Magellan (the first sailor to go around the world), Diogo Cão, Bartolomeu Dias, Afonso de Albuquerque, Luís de Camões, Pedro Nunes, and Nuno Gonçalves. you can reach to the Statue of Explorers easily by train from Lisbon. Once you come to Belem do not forget to visit the Belem Monastery, The Berardo Museum and the patisserie where the famous desert ‘pastel de Belem’ is made.