Ibiza

Ibiza or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands in area, but the second-largest by population. Its largest settlements are Ibiza Town, Santa Eulària des Riu, and Sant Antoni de Portmany. Its highest point, called Sa Talaiassa, is above sea level.
Ibiza is well known for its nightlife and electronic dance music club scene in the summer, which attract large numbers of tourists. The island's government and the Spanish Tourist Office have worked toward promoting more family-oriented tourism.
Ibiza is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ibiza and the nearby island of Formentera to its south are called the Pine Islands, or "Pityuses".

Names and pronunciation

In standard British English, the name is usually pronounced in an approximation of the Peninsular Spanish variant. In American English, the pronunciation is generally closer to the Latin American Spanish variant, and the first syllable is never pronounced as a homophone of "eye".
Phoenician colonists called the island Ibossim or Iboshim, likely due the abundance of aromatic plants on the island. Other speculation is. It was later known to Romans as Ebusus.
The Greeks called the two islands of Ibiza and Formentera the Pityoûssai. The Catalan name Pitiüses and the Spanish name Pitiusas retain this Greek root.
Its name in Catalan is Eivissa in most dialects, but Eivissa in a minority of dialects including Valencian. The Spanish name is Ibiza.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the island was known to the British and especially to the Royal Navy as Ivica, possibly from an older Spanish orthography with.

History

In 654 BC, Phoenician settlers founded a port on Ibiza. With the decline of Phoenicia after the Assyrian invasions, Ibiza came under the control of Carthage, also a former Phoenician colony. The island produced dye, salt, fish sauce and wool.
A shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Cuieram, and the rest of the Balearic Islands entered Eivissa's commercial orbit after 400 BC. Ibiza was a major trading post along the Mediterranean routes. Ibiza began establishing its own trading stations along the nearby Balearic island of Mallorca, such as Na Guardis, and "Na Galera" where numerous Balearic mercenaries hired on, no doubt as slingers, to fight for Carthage.
During the Second Punic War, the island was assaulted by the two Scipio brothers in 217 BC but remained loyal to Carthage. With the Carthaginian military failing on the Iberian mainland, Ibiza was last used, 205 B.C, by the fleeing Carthaginian general Mago to gather supplies and men before sailing to Menorca and then to Liguria. Ibiza negotiated a favorable treaty with the Romans, which spared Ibiza from further destruction and allowed it to continue its Carthaginian-Punic institutions, traditions and even coinage well into the Empire days, when it became an official Roman municipality.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and a brief period of first Vandal and then Byzantine rule, the island was conquered by the Muslims in 902. The few remaining locals converted to Islam and Berber settlers came in. Under Islamic rule, Ibiza came in close contact with the city of Dénia—the closest port in the nearby Iberian peninsula, located in the Valencian Community—and the two areas were administered jointly by the Taifa of Dénia for some time.
Ibiza, together with the islands of Formentera and Menorca, were invaded by the Norwegian King Sigurd I of Norway in the spring of 1110 on his crusade to Jerusalem. The king had previously conquered the cities of Sintra, Lisbon and Alcácer do Sal and given them over to Christian rulers, in an effort to weaken the Muslim grip on the Iberian peninsula. King Sigurd continued to Sicily where he visited King Roger II of Sicily.
In september 1159, Ibiza was sacked by the Norman fleet of the Kingdom of Sicily, led by Pedro the Eunech, who looted the island, captured and enslaved the population, then left after being summoned by King William I of Sicily.
The island was conquered for the Crown of Aragon in 1235. The local Muslim population was deported, as was the case with neighboring Mallorca and elsewhere, and Christians arrived from Girona. The island maintained its own self-government in several forms until 1715, when King Philip V of Spain abolished the local government's autonomy. The arrival of democracy in the late 1970s led to the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands. Today, the island is part of the Balearic Autonomous Community, along with Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera.

Development

Since the early days of mass tourism on the island, there have been a large number of development projects ranging from successful ventures, such as the super clubs at Space and Privilege, to failed development projects, such as Josep Lluís Sert's abandoned hotel complex at Cala D'en Serra, the half-completed and now demolished "Idea" nightclub in Sant Antoni, and the ruins of a huge restaurant/nightclub in the hills near Sant Josep called "Festival Club" that only operated for three summer seasons in the early 1970s. The transient nature of club-oriented tourism is most obvious in these ruins scattered all over the island. Local artist Irene de Andrès has tackled the difficult issue of the impact of mass tourism on the island local landscapes, both natural and cultural, in an ongoing project called Where nothing occurs,in Spanish “donde nada ocurre”. In 2013, Ibiza property prices generally remained above market value, and many of the development projects on the island have now been completed or continue, as well as some new projects announced at the end of 2012. Since 2009, Ibiza has received an increase in the number of tourists every year, with nearly 6 million people travelling through Ibiza Airport in 2012. The summer season has become concentrated between June and September, focusing on the "clubbing calendar" which is currently booming. In recent years, the luxury market has dramatically improved, with new restaurants, clubs, and improvements to the marina in Ibiza Town.
Ibiza's increased popularity has led to problems with potable water shortages and overrun infrastructure. This has led to the imposition of a "Sustainable Tourism Tax" which went into effect on 1 July 2016. Minister of Tourism Vincente Torres stated in an interview in 2016 that the government has instituted a moratorium on building in certain areas. He said that with almost 100,000 legal tourist beds and about 132,000 inhabitants on the island's, not much more tourism can be supported.

Geography

Ibiza is a rock island covering an area of, almost one-sixth the size of Mallorca, but over five times larger than Mykonos in the Greek Isles, or 10 times larger than Manhattan in New York City.
Ibiza is the larger of a group of the western Balearic archipelago called the Pityusic Islands or "Pine Islands" composed of itself and Formentera. The Balearic island chain includes over 50 islands, many of which are uninhabited. The highest point of the island is Sa Talaiassa, also known as Sa Talaia or Sa Talaia de Sant Josep at.

Administration

Ibiza is administratively part of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, whose capital is Palma, on the island of Mallorca. Ibiza comprises five of the region's 67 municipalities:

Map	Municipality	Area in square km	Population 1 Nov 2011	Population 1 Jan 2021	Population 1 Jan 2023
	Sant Josep de sa Talaia	159.4	24,079	29,015	30,340
	Sant Antoni de Portmany	126.8	21,915	27,582	28,551
	Sant Joan de Labritja ''	121.7	5,351	6,610	6,809
	Santa Eulària des Riu	153.6	33,699	40,413	41,608
	Vila d'Eivissa	11.1	48,550	50,566	51,872
	Totals	572.6	133,594	154,186	159,180

At the 2001 census these municipalities had a total population of 88,076 inhabitants, which had risen to an officially estimated total of 159,180 at the start of 2023, and have a land area of.
The island's self-government institution is the Ibiza Island Council. Prior to its split in 2007, Formentera was part of the council.

Insular government

Elections are held every four years concurrently with local elections. From 1983 to 2007, councilors were indirectly elected from the results of the election to Parliament of the Balearic Islands for the constituencies of Ibiza and Formentera. Since 2007, however, separate direct elections are held to elect the Island Council of Ibiza, which has kept 13 as the number of seats.

Results of the elections to the former Island Council of Ibiza and Formentera

Results of the elections to the Island Council of Ibiza

Climate

Ibiza has a hot semi-arid climate. The average annual temperature of Ibiza is, being warm and mild throughout the whole year. Ibiza lies at the same latitude as Atlantic City, yet it is much warmer for its location in the Mediterranean Basin. The climate of Ibiza is typically warm, sunny and dry, with low variation between highs and lows. The sunshine hours of Ibiza are 2700–2800 per year, while the yearly rain amount ranges from. The average high temperature is, while the average low is. Winters are slightly rainy and mild, from November to April normally the whole island turns green for the seasonal rains. Summers are hot and fairly humid, which contributes to high dew points and muggy weather, increasing the heat index, although with very little rainfall. The few rainy days are often accompanied by thunderstorms.
During the coldest month, January, the average high temperature is, while the average low is. In the warmest month, August, the average high temperature is, while the low is. Extreme temperatures are rare for the influence of the sea. The average temperature of the sea in Ibiza is and beach weather usually lasts 7 months, from May to November. The highest temperature ever recorded on Ibiza Airport is on 13 August 2022.