Map of Andalusia

Andalusia (Andalucia in Spanish, pronounced roughly And-al-oo-thii-ya in correct Castilian and And-al-oo-see-ya in Andalusia itself) is the second largest region in Spain (the biggest is Castile and León, the largest in Europe, in fact) and has the highest population. Its origins are more historical than geographic, but it is definable in terms of geography as well.

Natural Boundaries. To the west, Andalusia is separated from Portugal by the River Guadiana, to the east, the various Cordilleras Béticas, the mountain ranges which range across Andalusia from west to east, converge to separate Murcia from Andalusia, while to the south, of course, lies the Atlantic Bay of Cadiz west of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The division which is less easy to appreciate is to the north, where it is separated from Extremadura and, especially, Castile-La Mancha (New Castile) by the Sierra Morena which, though not particularly high or imposing, is the southern rim of Spain's meseta, its great central plateau. This division is particularly acute in the north of the province of Jaén, where a tremendous gorge called Despeñaperros forms a natural gateway between Jaén (and Andalusia) and Ciudad Real (and Spain).

What Andalusia is Like. Many visitors never come to appreciate it, but Andalusia, though on average lower than Castile, is a mountainous region, and not, in general, dry. The different sierras which cross it (there are dozens) are naturally grouped into chains of mountain ranges, the Cordilleras Béticas, which extend all the way to Majorca - the famous Sierra de Tramuntana belongs to these mountains. The exception to all this mountainousness is the Guadalquivir Basin, a wide, fertile plain which runs from Jaén through the provinces of Córdoba and Seville all the way to Huelva and the Bay of Cadiz. The broad River Guadalquivir, the only navigable river in Spain, historically bursts its banks with Nile-like regularity, spreading silt washed down from the Sierra de Cazorla and other mountains - this effect can still be seen in the Coto de Doñana National Park. Blessed by the Guadalquivir, then, the four northern Andalusian provinces, from east to west, Jaén, Córdoba, Seville and Huelva, are agriculturally rich, producing cereals, olives and wine grapes (and Huelva has historically been rich in the minerals found in its sierras). The southern belt of Andalusian provinces, again from east to west, Almería, Granada, Málaga and Cádiz, are more mountainous and drier (especially Almería, much of which is desert or near-desert) but, for one reason or another, all have been territories coveted in history.

Economy and History. Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians established colonies in Andalusia, probably enabling the emergence of the first real Iberian civilization, the Kingdom of Tartessos, which grew up somewhere between Cádiz and Huelva. Tartessos was defeated and absorbed by Carthage, itself subsequently defeated and nearly obliterated by Rome, which conquered the Iberian Peninsula, Hispania, from about 218 BC on (the conquest took nearly two centuries to complete). Rome divided Hispania into three provinces, Lusitania (now Portugal, Hispania Terraconsis, and Hispania Baetica (Andalusia), so called after the Roman name for the Guadalquivir. Hispania Baetica, more prosperous and developed than the rest of the peninsula, was the most susceptible of the three to Roman civilization. The Romans made Córdoba the provincial capital, and although the Visigoths who succeeded them between the fifth and eighth centuries preferred Toledo, the eighth-century Moorish conquerors re-established Córdoba as the administrative seat of Al-Andalus, which at first occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula. The Guadalquivir was navigable all the way to Córdoba then, and most of the trading routes between Europe and North Africa would have passed through it. Prosperous ninth and tenth-century Córdoba, with its public baths and street lighting, was probably the most civilized place in mediaeval Europe.

After the Caliphate. The Moorish star waned more than waxed, as the Christian reconquista advanced, slowly but inexorably, with the support of the European powers, particularly the Church, while the Moorish states deteriorated from Caliphate to the taifas, minor kingdoms. Cordoba (which was taken by sea), Seville, Jaén and Cadiz fell to the invading Castilians between 1236 and 1265, leaving the Nasrid Emirate of Granada as the only Muslim foothold on the peninsula. However, the Christian conquerors found their new possessions stripped of their richness and lacking their greatest asset - the skilled Moorish farmers, craftsmen and traders, most of whom fled or otherwise escaped. The Guadalquivir was not to retake its position as the country's main source of wealth until the discovery of the Americas, after which the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella established Seville as the capital, through which the riches of the New World passed. Andalusia, particularly the Guadalquivir basin, saw another golden age, and even when the silting up of the Guadalquivir forced the Spanish government to stop using Seville as the port monopolising American trade in the eighteenth century, the substitute chosen was Cádiz.

The Decline and Recovery of Andalusia. So it was not lack of resources or historical irrelevance that brought about the near-definitive decline of Andalusia in the nineteenth century, but missed opportunities. To sum up, the Industrial Revolution passed Andalusia by like a bus leaving passengers standing at a bus stop. The economic centre of gravity of Spain moved north, towards mineral-rich Asturias, and the Basque Country, emerging as an industrial giant, and east towards Catalonia. Time stopped for Andalusia, and the new post-war phenomenon of mass tourism caught it like that, frozen like a picture taken a hundred years earlier. Fortunately, mass tourism liked it, and in the sixties, tens of thousands of charter holidaymakers went home content with their souvenir bottles of Málaga wine, photos of the donkeys in Mijas, and plastic flamenco guitars. The world had discovered the Costa del Sol, an economic boom for the then-deprived region which would bring prosperity again, but lead to urban blight, including the concreting over of much of the coast.

The Best of Andalusia. Fortunately again, the new economic panorama did not overly affect the region's cultural or natural heritage. Although much of the coast has been spoilt, perhaps irremediably, there are some beauty spots left even there, and the Andalusian sierras are, in general, better maintained and conserved than ever. And Andalusia's great Moorish cities, especially Córdoba, Seville and Granada (at least the Alhambra), still stand, often skilfully if not lovingly restored to their place among the greatest artistic achievements in the world.

This map of Andalusia comes courtesy of those nice young people over at Google, bless their little cotton socks. It will centre where you double click, you can pan over it using the arrows (or dragging the rectangle in the overview map in the corner), and you can zoom in and out using the '+' and '-' buttons. Neat, ain't it? I have pre-selected the "Hybrid" view, just because I happen to like the look of it — if you are looking for a road map or a street map, just click "Map" (or "Mapa" or whatever it says in your language). Or select the "Satellite" view to remove the place names and other map elements.

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