 | The strategic location of this area, at the foot of the mountains and perched on the Mediterranean, has made it the home of numerous peoples since Prehistoric times.
The earliest remains found in the area date back to the Neolithic and the culture of Los Millares. There are also remains from the Bronze Age, though the area enjoyed its first splendour with the arrival of the Phoenicians.
According to the Greek author Strabon and the Roman author Pliny, the Phoenicians founded the town of Abdera (Adra) in the 8th Century BC when they arrived in the Iberian Peninsula (what is now mainland Spain). Phoenician remains have been found in Roquetas de Mar and on the coast around Berja, where the Carthaginians settled in the 6th Century BC.
The area features many Roman remains from the times when Adra became an important Mediterranean town thanks to the trade of salted fish and the precious “garum”, a fermented fish sauce that the Romans loved. Vergi (Berja), Turaniana (Roquetas de Mar) and Murgi, in the municipality of El Ejido, are other examplesof Roman towns.
As the rear guard of the kingdom of Granada, it was from these shores that Boabdil, the last king of the Moorish kingdom of Al-Andalus, retreated in exile to the Moroccan city of fez, like so many of his people. The Moors who had been expelled after they rebelled against the Spanish Catholic Monarchs under the leadership of Abén Humeya in 1568, and the area was repopulated with Christians from other parts of Spain. Yet, the Moorish imprint still remains in the ancient castles, Arab baths and aljibes or water cisterns scattered throughout the area, and especially in its popular architecture and urban planning. | |
The Modern Ages were inauspicious. The population decreased, and Berber pirates from North Africa frequently attacked the coastline, which was defended by the string of castles and watchtowers that we can still see along the coast. It was not until the 19th Century that Western Almería enjoyed a new flourishing period, brought about by the mining activities in the mountains of the Sierra de Gádor, the exports of grapes from the Ohanes, tuna fishing and the salt industry.
Yet, the real economic boom of the area took place in the 20th Century with the development of intensive agriculture, which even brought about the creation of a new municipality called La Mojonera. Agriculture and tourism have turned the area into one of the most attractive destinations in the province of Almería in the 21st Century. | |