SPAIN

Andalucía is an autonomous region located in the southern Spain, that includes the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, and Seville. It is bounded on the north by the Sierra Morena; on the east by the provinces of Albacete and Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea; on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean; and on the west by Portugal.

The capital is the city of Seville. The most important river is the Guadalquivir, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean north of Cádiz. South of the valley of the Guadalquivir are the Sierra Nevada mountains. The highest peak is Mulhacén (3,477 m/11,407 ft). Most of Andalucía is fertile. The climate on the Mediterranean coast is subtropical, on the Atlantic coast, temperate. In the highlands, a lower temperature prevails, and snow is not unusual. The warm climate of the valleys and plains allows the cultivation of oranges, olives, and sugarcane; wheat, corn, and other grains flourish. Mineral deposits in the mountainous areas include lead, silver, copper, mercury, and coal.Andalucía was probably the biblical Tarshish (from Tartessus, an ancient kingdom on the southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula).

The Carthaginians settled here in the 5th century bc. The district was conquered by the Romans, who called it Baetica (from Boetis, the Roman name of the Guadalquivir River). Under the Roman Empire the region was very prosperous. The country was overrun by the Vandals early in the 5th century. From the Vandals the region took the name Vandalusia, which, in later centuries, was corrupted into Andalucía. The Vandals were succeeded by the Visigoths, who ruled until the Arab invasion of 711, after which Andalucía became the center of the Saracen and Moorish civilization.

The cities of Granada, Córdoba, Seville, and Jaén were seats of Islamic culture, industry, and commerce. Students from all parts of Europe attended the great Muslim universities. Andalucía, established as a Moorish emirate in 756, later developed into the caliphate of Córdoba (see Córdoba). Lower Andalucía, corresponding to the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, was taken from the Moors in 1212.

The Upper Andalucía survived as the kingdom of Granada (see Granada) until 1492, when it was conquered by the sovereigns of Castile and Aragón, Ferdinand V and Isabella. From 1516 the history of Andalucía merges with that of the united kingdom of Spain. Andalucía has a superficie of about 87,599 sq km (33,822 sq mi) and as of 2003, the population was about 7,606,848.

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