The origins of Dalías date to the Al-Andalus period. The current population corresponds to the old Muslim town of Ambrox, although other data indicates that the primitive population was located 2km from the current situation, in El Campo, where there are remains of tombs, aqueducts, houses and streets. Its name comes from the Arabic word dalaya, which means vineyard.
Although the origins of Alcolea are uncertain, the oldest vestiges discovered locally correspond to the Neolithic period, which were found at the beginning of the twentieth century in Barranco de los Caballos. These are thought to be the remains of animals.
Berja is thought to be of Iberian origin. Its Roman heritage is more assured, having been the Vergis of Roman Betica, from which period the remains of the Villavieja amphitheater stand out. The Romans left other artistic vestiges including the early Christian sarcophagus of Alcaudique (currently exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum).
The origin of Somontín dates back to the Roman era (second century AD), although evidence suggests that the original nucleus of the village was situated south of the current enclave. The village is likely to have been a place of importance since Emperor Marco Aurelio gave it authorization to coin money.
Since prehistory, Serón has been settled by numerous cultures. Among the most interesting local archaeological findings is the presence of the wine glass formation, which occurs along the Almanzora River and spreads throughout Europe.
Mojácar has a long, complex history that stretches over 4,000 years. Populated by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, and Moors, it remains an intersection of many cultures. It was under Moorish rule that Mojácar really began to flourish. The castle was built and the town walls were expanded and fortified.
Via Herculea or Via Exterior was an important Roman road into Hispania, reaching as far as Gades (Cadiz). This 1,500 km-road from Narbonne in Gaul to Cadiz was renamed Via Augusta after the emperor, who ordered it to be renovated between 8 BC and 2 BC. Many Roman roads in Andalucia are today referred to as Via Augusta. This is a misnomer, although other roads that Augustus renovated may have been referred to locally as Via Augusta. The confusion arises because the Romans only named principal routes.
The Story of Mary Herbert and Joseph Gage. Lady Mary Herbert, daughter of the second Marquess of Powis, and her lifelong admirer Joseph Gage, were legendary 18th-century adventurers who ran the Guadalcanal and Rio Tinto mine from the late 1720s to 1740s.
Carmona is one of the most historic cities of the province. Its different denominations proclaim the role of the city in the different invasions. Its name is of Semitic origin, 'Kar' meaning 'city', and is explained by its probable Phoenician foundation. The Romans called it 'Carmo', and the Arabs 'Qarmuna'.
Copper is a metal and chemical element with the symbol Cu. Its name derives from the Latin cuprum. It is a soft ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a reddish/orange colour.
A fascinating history of this pivotal point in Spanish and European history, this is an important new look at the conquest of Granada The sultanate of Granada was the last bastion of Islamic rule in Western Europe. Situated in the mountainous regions of Southern Spain, it survived and even prospered for over two and a half centuries and was then overwhelmed in less than a decade.
This title features: dynamic two-colour layout for clear navigation magazine style, combining stunning photography, itineraries and the authors' personal take on the country; extensive listings of hotels and restaurants - all personally visited and recommended top 'Don't Miss' sights at the start of every chapter, plus new 'Author Choices' of personal favourite places to stay and eat clear, designed two-colour maps throughout for increased ease of use and, the only guides with full-colour touring maps of the whole region.
Between 1920 and 1934, Gerald Brenan lived in the remote Spanish village of Yegen and "South from Granada" depicts his time there, vividly evoking the essence of his rural surroundings and the Spanish way of life before the Civil War. Here he portrays the landscapes, festivals and folk-lore of the Sierra Nevada, the rivalries, romances and courtship rituals, village customs,
In this masterly book, now in a revised and updated fourth edition, Michael Jacobs looks with fresh eyes at all the traditional delights of Andalucia while doing full justice to the lesser-known aspects of the region. He examines the underrated local food and drink, the extraordinarily varied natural scenery, the composers and writers who created the romantic myths and legends of the nineteenth century, the strange legacy of Lorca and the Spanish Civil War.
For long the subject was taboo. Now a new books throws fresh light on a forgotten war that raged in the 1940s and early 1950s in the mountains of Spain. Entitled Between Two Fires - Guerrilla war in the Spanish sierras, the book appears at a moment when Spain is involved in intense and often bitter debate about its recent past under the 40-year Franco dictatorship.
Manuel Cortes was a Socialist Party member, an activist in the peasant reform movement and an organizer in the farm worker's unionization struggles. He also became mayor of Mijas, where he was caught up in the ferment of revolutionary Spain in the late 1930s.
Gerald Howson went to Cadiz in Andalusia, Spain to learn Flamenco in the 50's. There the gaditanos (as the people from Cadiz are known) first regarded him as an oddity but gradually came to accept him.
The Spanish are reputed to be amongst Europe's most voluble people. So why have they kept silent about the terrors of the Spanish Civil War and the rule of dictator Generalisimo Francisco Franco? The appearance - sixty years after that war ended - of mass graves containing victims of Franco's death squads has finally broken what Spaniards call 'the pact of forgetting'.
Books about the history and culture of Andalucia: The Duchess of Rio Tinto by Martin Murphy, Granada, the seizure of the sultanate, Andalucia by Michael Pauls and Dana Facaros, South from Granada by Gerald Brenan, Andalucia by Michael Jacobs and more.
When the Romans invaded in the 1st century AD they proceeded to build whole towns and innumerable monuments, as well as roads, bridges and aqueducts. The two significant characteristics of their architecture are the arch and the dome, along with the sense of space and grandeur.
