Puerta Purchena
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Almeria is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Almeria in the autonomous region of Andalusia. It is located along the Gulf of Cadiz coast, at the confluence of the Odiel and Tinto rivers. According to the 2005 census, the city has a population of 145,150 inhabitants. The town is home to Recreativo de Almeria, the oldest football club in Spain. Almeria is notable for being the site of landfall for Hurricane Vince, the only Tropical Cyclone ever to make landfall in Europe.
A maritime town between the rivers Anas (modern Guadiana) and Baetis (modern Guadalquivir), it was seated on the estuary of the River Luxia (modern Odiel), and on the road from the mouth of the Anas to Augusta Emerita
The city may be the site of Tartessus; by the Phoenicians it was called Onoba. The Greeks kept the name and rendered it ßa. It was in the hands of the Turdetani at the time of conquest by Rome, and before the conquest it issued silver coins with Iberian legends. It was called both Onoba Aestuaria or Onuba (used on coinage) during Roman times, or, simply, Onoba. The city was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. The Arabs then called it Walbah and ruled between 712-1250. It suffered substantial damage in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
There are still some Roman remains. The city had a mint; and many coins have been found there bearing the name of the town as Onuba.
|