Almuñécar
| Almuñécar | |||
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| Municipality | |||
Almuñécar
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 Almuñécar
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| Coordinates: 36°44′N 3°41′W / 36.733°N 3.683°WCoordinates: 36°44′N 3°41′W / 36.733°N 3.683°W | |||
| Country |
 Spain
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| Autonomous community |
 Andalusia
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| Province | Granada | ||
| Comarca | Costa Tropical | ||
| Judicial district | Almuñécar | ||
| Founded | ~800BC | ||
| Government | |||
| • Alcalde | Trinidad Herrera Lorente (2011) (PP) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 83.36 km2 (32.19 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 24 m (79 ft) | ||
| Highest elevation | 87 m (285 ft) | ||
| Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | ||
| Population (2012) | |||
| • Total | 27,703 | ||
| • Density | 330/km2 (860/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym(s) | Sexitano, -na o almuñequero, -ra |
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| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 18690 (Almuñécar y Velilla-Taramay) 18697 (La Herradura) |
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| Website | Official website | ||
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Almuñécar is a municipality in the Spanish Autonomous Region of Andalusia on the Costa Tropical between Nerja (Málaga) and Motril. It has a subtropical climate. Almuñécar lies in the province of Granada, and has around 27,700 citizens (2012). Since 1975, the town has become one of the most important tourist towns in Granada province and on the Costa Tropical; it has good transport connections and a football (soccer) stadium.
Almuñécar is an important setting in Laurie Lee's account of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, and referred to as "Castillo" to disguise people's identities.
Almuñécar's coat of arms, which shows the turbaned heads of three Barbary pirates floating in the sea, was granted to the town by King Carlos I in 1526 for its having destroyed a Berber raiding force.
Trinidad Herrera is the first woman to be elected mayor of Almuñecar. Although Juan Carlos Benavides' Covergencia Andaluza party won the most popular votes, he failed to form a coalition. The city council elected Herrera, local leader of the Partido Popular, on 11 June 2011.
Almuñécar began as a Phoenician colony named Sexi, and even today, some of its inhabitants still call themselves Sexitanos. Under the Moors, Almuñécar blossomed as the fishing town of al-Munakkab (المُنَكَّب) or Ḥiṣn-al-Munakkab (حصن المنكب). Although the Phoenician and Roman history of the district was known from Greek and Roman sources it was not until the 1950s that significant archaeological evidence was discovered.
The Phoenicians first established a colony in Almuñécar in about 800 BC and this developed for six hundred years into an important port and town with the name of Ex or Sexi and with a large fish salting and curing industry that was a major supplier of Greece and Rome. They also supplied a prized fish paste called garum made from the intestines of small fishes by a process of fermentation. Archaeological evidence comes chiefly from Phoenician cemeteries, the earlier Laurita necropolis on the hillside at Cerro San Cristobal and the later necropolis at Punte de Noy. An extensive collection of Phoenician grave goods and other artifacts is on display in the town museum located at the Castle of San Miguel and in the 'Cueva de Siete Palacios'.
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Wikipedia