GRANADA, ANDALUSIA

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Granada is a province of southern Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Albacete, Murcia, Almería, Jaén, Córdoba, Málaga, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Granada.

Its area is 12,635 km². Its population is 876,184 (2006), of whom about 30% live in the capital, and its population density is 64.82/km² It contains 168 municipalities.

There are Roman Catholic cathedrals at Granada and Guadix.

The tallest mountain in Iberian Peninsula, Mulhacén, is located in Granada. It measures 3,481 m.

Granada shares the Sierra Nevada National Park (in the Sierra Nevada mountain range) with Almería province.

Although slightly too far east to catch the floods of British tourists coming to the Costa del Sol via Málaga, Granada brings in a number of tourists with its Moorish architecture and famous Alhambra. In the winter the mountains of the Sierra Nevada play host to a small but thriving ski industry; these are Europe's most southerly ski resorts.

The city of Granada is situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea level yet only one hour from the Mediterrean coast, the Costa Tropical. At the 2005 census, the population of the city of Granada proper was 236,982, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be 472,638, ranking as the 13th-largest urban area of the Spanish Kingdom. About 3.3% of the population did not hold Spanish citizenship, the largest number of these (31%) coming from South America. Its nearest airport is FGL Airport.

The Alhambra, a Moorish citadel and palace, is in Granada. It is one of the most famous items of the Islamic historical legacy that makes Granada a hot spot among cultural and tourist cities in Spain. The Almohad urbanism with some fine examples of Moorish and Morisco constructions is preserved at the part of the city called the Albaicín.

Granada is also well-known within Spain due to the prestigious University of Granada and, nowadays, vibrant night-life. In fact, it is said that it is one of the three best cities for college students (the other two are Salamanca and Santiago de Compostela).

The pomegranate (in Spanish, granada) is the heraldic device of Granada.

Map of Granada: