Most visitors to Andalucia know the area for it�s coastline, the Costas of Luz or Light, Sol or Sun and Tropical, it´s capital city Sevilla, and their arrival point, usually Malaga airport.

However, there is much more to Andalucia than this, and a starting point for looking at the fascianting history of the region is the name itself. Andalucia comes from the Arabic or Moorish name for the Iberian peninsula, Al Andalus, and there is no fully accepted explanation for this name, just a number of theories. The name, Al Andalus, was in common usage in the Arabic world before their invasion of Europe in the year 711 CE, and could have been their name for the land of the Vandals, or even the island of the Atlantic. Whatever the explanation the name stuck and has become present day Andalucia, the most Southerly region of mainland Spain.

As a look at the name has already suggested Andalucia has a rich and varied history with hundreds of superb monuments left behind to remind us. This land has been populated by the original Iberian people, Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Moors and present day Spaniards, but those who undoubtedly influenced the area the most were the Moors. They sailed from North Africa in 711 CE, landing at Gibraltar, whose name means Tariq�s Mountain and was named for their commander Tariq ibn � Ziyad. Their aim was to conquer Europe and within 20 years they�d succeeded here in the Iberian Peninsula, only being defeated in 732 CE at the Battle of Poitiers, in France.

From that moment on they were steadily pushed back down through Spain and Portugal until they only held sway in the South, in Al Andalus, where they remained until the year of the Reconquest in 1492 CE. The last Moorish Kingdom in Spain was Granada, which, at that time, covered most of the present day provinces of Almeria, Granada and Malaga. The last Sultan of Granada, Boabdil, handed over the keys of the city to the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, on January 2nd 1492, which, to this day, is still one of the most important fiestas to be celebrated in the city.

As the Sultan left the city to go into exile in the Alpujarras, he looked back and was seen to shed a tear, which was when his Mother told him to �cry now like a woman for what you could not defend as a man� It was a bit harsh of her really, as he�d been fighting for his Kingdom his whole life and was never going to win against the overwhelming odds that faced him.

Boabdil´s Palce, the Alhambra, or Red One, is Andalucia�s most famous Moorish monument. There are many others of course, among them the Mosque in Cordoba and the Alcazar in Sevilla (seen below).
All these monuments are definitely worth visiting, but, wherever you are in Andalucia, you can find reminders of the area�s past.
A small village in the mountains, Frigiliana, has a route of plaques which describe one of the last battles to be fought between the Moors and the Christians. A visit to the Alpujarras, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, can show you houses built in the same way as those of the Berber Tribesmen of North Africa. A trip inlan to the irrigated hills and valleys will show you the original Moorish irrigation system still in use. Why change a tried and tested method? Even the Spanish language reflects Arabic, with words like �azucar� (sugar). Place names with Arabic origins abound; any name beginning with �al� is almost definitely Arabic as al is the definite article, meaning the.

Although less numerous, there are many Roman remains as well. The town of Almunecar, in Granada, has the remains of a Roman salt fish factory and a Roman Bridge, amongst others. Wherever work is being carried out in Andalucia it is almost inevitable that archaeological remains will be discovered, so rich is the area in History. For example, in Cordoba when work was being done to lay the tracks for the new high speed train an almost complete Roman Mosaic was uncovered. They say that in Spain everything is �manana� or tomorrow, and one of the reasons for this is the wealth of History. Even the high speed train has to stop for a Roman Mosaic!
As you travel around Andalucia keep your eyes open and you�ll be surprised by what you can discover.