Costa del Sol Towns
The village was
abandoned in early Middle Ages, for unknown reasons. It is thought as most of
them were destroyed by a tsunami, the withdrawal to the mountains (Mijas) bound
by the resurgence of piracy or due to the Visigoth hordes.
After this time there is no information about the village until the Arabs
conquered the area from North Africa. Sohail
went on to be called (Suhayl) as well as the castle which dominated the
population. The castle was called this because according to legend, the star
Sohail (the Canopus
of the Romans, which is the brightest and the southern hemisphere guide to the
nomadic desert) could only be seen from this castle. Sohail then had a fairly
lengthy term, fertile, with small Villares. Born in the town were famous
writers and poets, such as As-Suheli. The village was then burned and again the
residents withdrew to Mijas.
On August 7, 1485 in
celebration of San Cayetano, patron-Fuengirola Sohail Castle was conquered by
Christian troops, being in command of the squadron of the Count Trivento,
Garcelan Requesens, and the ground troops of the Marquis Cadiz, Rodrigo Ponce
de Leon.
After the conquest, there was an attempt to
repopulate the area, but the threat of invasion from northern Africa
and other factors such as scarcity of land to buy, near Fuengirola, explain the
failure of reforestation, and in 1511 it appears as an unpopulated area, being
reduced to a defensive fortress and coastal surveillance
Fuengirola was
founded by the Phoenicians, although it was previously believed that an Iberian
settlement may have existed. In the texts of Hecateo in 500 a. C., he referred
to Syalis, suggesting that they might have been one of the Punic colonies on
the coast of Malaga.
This same name played Mela, Pliny and Ptolemy, which lies between Malacca and
Salduba as a fortified village. From the third century BC and after the Second
Punic War, Syalis, like all municipalities in the northern and southern fringe
of Hispania, becomes Roman.
The Roman presence was the most important
and they renamed the area Soil. In the town, which became an important city
federation, the Romans left traces such as baths and the villa of the farm or the
Secretary Saladero that are at the foot of Mount Castle.
In the town were found the remains of
archaeological value as a statue of the goddess Venus) whose importance lies in
funerary inscription containing the adjective "Suelitana”. Another finding
is the unfinished architectural pieces that were moved from the mines of Mijas
and now are mounted on the seafront in Los Boliches in front of a Roman temple.
