Almería
Almería is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. The city lies in southeastern Iberia, extending primarily in between the eastern fringes of the Sierra de Gádor and the Andarax riverbed along the coastline of the Gulf of Almería, a large inlet of the Mediterranean Sea. The municipality has a population of 201,946.
Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city grew wealthy during the Islamic era, becoming a world city throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. It enjoyed an active port that traded silk, oil, and raisins. This period was brought to an end with the 1147 conquest of the city by a Christian coalition. Control over Almería switched hands over the rest of the middle ages. In the early modern period, with the onset of Barbary piracy, the ethnic cleansing of moriscos in the Kingdom of Granada, and several natural calamities, urban decay accrued. The 19th-century reactivation of mining activity in the hinterland fostered commercial activity and demographic growth.
Key road routes include the A-7 connecting Almería to the rest of the Spanish Mediterranean coast and the A-92 connecting the city to Granada and inner Andalusia. Almería is served by a medium-sized airport and a port with a growing specialization in passenger and ro-ro transport with the North of Africa.
Being adjacent to a small desert, Almería has an exceptionally dry climate by European standards.
Etymology
The name "Almería" comes from the city's former Arabic name, مدينة المرية : Madīnat al-Mariyya, meaning "city of the watchtower". As the settlement was originally the port or coastal suburb of Pechina, it was initially known as مريّة البجّانة : Mariyyat al-Bajjāna.History
The origin of Almería is connected to the 9th-century establishment of the so-called Republic of Pechina some kilometres to the north, which was for a time autonomous from the Cordobese central authority: the settlement of current-day Almería initially developed as a humble trading port of Pechina known as Al-Mariyya Bajjana. Pechina and its maritime port experienced divergent fortunes, and while the former progressively depopulated, the latter became the base of the Caliphal navy after 933, during the rule of Abd-ar-Rahman III. The port suffered a devastating Fatimid naval attack in 955 that exposed the Caliphate's defensive shortcomings. Also in 955, Abd-ar-Rahman III decided to erect the walls. A silk industry consisting of hundreds of looms and feeding itself from the mulberry trees planted in the region, fostered Almería's economy. Almería also became an important slave trade hub during the caliphal period.In the wake of the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th century, Almería detached from Cordobese authority towards 1014 and became ruled as an independent taifa under Slavic kinglets. It submitted to the Taifa of Valencia in 1038, yet it soon became independent as a new taifa, ruled by the Arab Banu Sumadih until 1091, when it fell to Almoravid control. This allowed the city's economy to insert itself into the trade networks of the Almoravid empire. Building upon the previous development during the caliphal period, Almería reached a degree of historical relevance unmatched in the rest of its history throughout the 11th and 12th centuries, becoming the third-largest city of Al-Andalus. Almería imported indigo dye and wool from the Maghreb and linen from Egypt, while it exported copper to Fez and Tlemcen as well as its highly sought textiles.
Contested by the emirs of Granada and Valencia, Almería experienced many sieges, including one especially fierce siege when Christians, called to the Second Crusade by Pope Eugene III, were also encouraged to counter the Muslim forces on a more familiar coast. On that occasion Alfonso VII, starting on 11 July 1147, at the head of mixed armies of Catalans, Genoese, Pisans and Franks, led a crusade against the rich city, and Almería was captured on 17 October 1147, marking the breakup of the city's period of splendor in the Middle Ages.
Within a decade, in 1157, Almería had passed to the control of Muslim Almohad rulers. Almería soon passed by the temporary overarching control of rebel Murcian emir Ibn Mardanish, hindering the early efforts of recovery in the city, that under the decade of Christian occupation reportedly had been left depopulated and, by and large, quite destroyed. During Almohad rule, the city did not return to its previous splendor, although the port remained trading with the Crown of Aragon and the Italian republics.
Following the rebellion against Almohad rule heralded by the likes of the Banu Hud and the Banu Mardanis, Almería submitted to the authority of Ibn Hud, who had raised the black banner and pledged nominal allegiance to Abbasid authorities by 1228. After Ibn Hud's assassination in Almería in 1238, the bulk of the remaining Muslim-controlled territories in the Iberian Peninsula passed to the control of rival ruler Ibn al-Aḥmar, who had set the capital of his emirate in Granada by 1238, constituting the Emirate of Granada, to which Almería belonged from then on. While relatively languishing throughout the Nasrid period, Almería still remained a key strategic port of the emirate together with Málaga, as well as a haven for pirates and political dissidents. It sustained intense trading relations with Aragon and the African port of Honaine. Almería endured a brutal siege by Aragonese forces in 1309 that, while eventually unsuccessful, left the city battered.
The city submitted to the sovereignty of the Catholic Monarchs on 22 December 1489. Relatively isolated and within the range of attacks from Barbary pirates, the hitherto mercantile city entered modernity by undergoing a process of heavy ruralization that imperiled its very same continued existence as a city.
Historically, there was a Jewish community in Almería dating to the 10th century, where members of the community mostly engaged in maritime trade. When the Jews were expelled in 1492, many living in Almería fled to North Africa.
The 16th century was for Almería a century of natural and human catastrophes; for there were at least four earthquakes, of which the one in 1522 was especially violent, devastating the city. The people who had remained Muslim were expelled from Almería after the War of Las Alpujarras in 1568 and scattered across the Crown of Castile. Landings and attacks by Barbary pirates were also frequent in the 16th century, and continued until the early 18th century. At that time, huge iron mines were discovered and French and British companies set up business in the area, bringing renewed prosperity and returning Almería to a position of relative importance within Spain.
During the Spanish Civil War the city was shelled by the German Navy, with news reaching the London and Parisian press about the "criminal bombardment of Almería by German planes". Almería surrendered in 1939, being the last Andalusian main city to fall to Francoist forces.
In the second half of the 20th century, Almería witnessed spectacular economic growth due to tourism and intensive agriculture, with crops grown year-round in massive invernaderos - plastic-covered "greenhouses" - for intensive vegetable production.
After Franco's death and popular approval of the new Spanish Constitution, the people of southern Spain were called on to approve an autonomous status for Andalusia region in a referendum. The referendum were approved with 118,186 votes for and 11,092 votes against in Almería province, which represented 42% of all registered voters.
Geography
Due to its arid landscape, numerous Spaghetti Westerns were filmed in Almería and some of the sets still remain as a tourist attraction.These sets are located in the desert of Tabernas. The town and region were also used by David Lean in Lawrence of Arabia, John Milius in The Wind and the Lion and others.
One of Almería's most famous natural spots is the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park. This park is of volcanic origin, and is the largest and most ecologically significant marine-terrestrial space in the European Western Mediterranean Sea. The Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park runs through the municipal areas of Níjar, Almerimar and Carboneras. Its villages, previously dedicated to fishing, have become tourism spots. The beaches of Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park are also an attraction.
Almería has one islet that it administers as a part of its territory in the Alboran Sea, Alboran Island. The island has a small cemetery, a harbor, and a lighthouse, built in the 19th century.
Crystal cave
In 2000, a team of geologists found a cave filled with giant gypsum crystals in an abandoned silver mine near Almería. The cavity, which measures, may be the largest geode ever found. The entrance of the cave was blocked by five tons of rocks, and was under police protection. According to geological models, the cave was formed during the Messinian salinity crisis 6 million years ago, when the Mediterranean sea evaporated and left thick layers of salt sediments. The site is currently open for tourists under guided tours.Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification, Almería has a hot desert climate. Almería is the driest city in Europe and it is the only one with a hot desert climate, starting in the south-eastern outskirts of the city until the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park located east of the city.The BWh climate is present in the city of Almería, in nearby areas of Almería province, the only region in Europe to have this climate. This arid climatic region spreads along the coastline around Almería to Torrevieja, in the northeast. The nearby Faro del Cabo in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, has the lowest annual precipitation on the European continent in the period 1961-1990 and around since 2010. Almería enjoys about 3,000 hours of sunshine with over 320 sunny days per year on average so it is one of the sunniest cities in Europe.
Almería is the only city in Continental Europe that has never registered any temperature below freezing in its recorded weather history. The coldest temperature recorded was at the airport in January 2005. Before that, the previous record was on 9 February 1935. Settled snow is unknown since 1935, although during the 20th century, light flurries occurred on few occasions. The most important settled snowfall event occurred in 1926 and the snow arrived even at the coastline of the city. The last event with settled snowfall happened on 9 February 1935.
During the winter, daily maximum temperatures tend to stay around. At night, the minimum temperature is usually around. This makes the city of Almería one of the warmest in winter in Spain. The city only receives yearly precipitation of just and 26 days of precipitation annually; so while no month could be described as truly wet, there are strong seasonal differences in terms of precipitation and temperature, with coastal parts of the city receiving a precipitation amount of, and an annual temperature of, while mountainous areas receive a precipitation amount of per year, and an average temperature of, so it would be classified as a cold desert climate bordering a cold semi-arid climate.
Inland areas of the Almería province are believed to have reached temperatures above in summer. Though temperatures above are very rare in the city of Almería.
During the summer, the skies are usually sunny and almost no rainfall occurs. The typical daily temperatures are around during the day while the minimum temperatures stay around during July and August. As is the case for most of coastal Iberia, heatwaves in Almería are much less common than in the interior because of its coastal location; The hottest temperature recorded was in August 2022. The highest minimum temperature ever recorded was on 31 July 2001, which is also the highest ever recorded in peninsular Spain and Iberian Peninsula.