Malaga

With 566,447 inhabitants, according to thecensus of 2008, Malaga is the sixth largest cityin Spainby total population and the largest as the capital of an autonomous community.

It is also the most densely populated urban areaof the conurbation consisting of the set of localities which are spread alongsome 140 km from the Costa del Sol and throughthe center of a metropolitan area that exceeds its municipal boundariesencompassing yet an other 12 other municipalities that total more than 850,000inhabitants.

Linguistically,though the only theory that can be sustained without major problems is the onethat points to a form of the Semitic root * mlk ‘king, king, to have dominance,”perhaps indicative of the presence in soil, malacitano of a templededicated to a goddess, probably Astarte (which is called “queen ofheaven” in the Semitic mythology). [citation needed]

If we consider thatthe founders of Malaga come from the powerful Phoenician city of Tire (Tiri),and that this city was the home of the supreme god Melqart, mlk-q (king + city)and that most of the coins found in the ceca of Malaga show on the back, atemple on the obverse image of a god, it is not unreasonable to infer that thetemple and the city were involved in this supreme god.

The large municipality of Malaga spans across three regions ofdifferent natural landscapes. The city itself occupies most of the Hoya deMalaga, an alluvial coastal plain formed by the estuaries of the riversGuadalhorce and Guadalmedina. Half the north and east of the mountainousmunicipality form the territory of the Montes de Malaga, reaching toconsiderable heights, and to the east lays the valley of the Guadalhorce.

Malaga overview

Malaga is a Spanish city, capital of the eponymous provincein the autonomous community of Andalusia. Itis situated on the western edge of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the IberianPeninsula, and just over 100 km from the Strait of Gibraltar.

The city lies on abay surrounded by mountains (Montes de Malaga). Two rivers, the Guadalhorce andthe Guadalmedina, flow through the city into the Mediterranean.Founded by the Phoenicians, Malaga was aconfederated city of the Roman Empire and aprosperous Andalusian medina, which declined after its accession to the Crownof Castile in 1487.

During the nineteenth century the city experiencedremarkable and revolutionary activity. At stage one of the bloodiest episodesof the Spanish Civil War, Malagawas a significant center-level economic autonomy and an important hub ofcommunications through its port and airport.

Malaga is now a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2016. Origin of Name   Malaga in 1836 The origin of the name is often described as Etimos, the Phoenician word for salt however the different consonants makesthis theory unlikely.

There are similar problems with thecredibility of another tempting explanation from the verb *LQ-H “catch,grab, twist” with the locative preformante m-* as if to mean the”place where the twists (metal)” (* malqaḥ or similar), indicatingthe presence of a foundry; in addition, this theory is supported by thefrequent occurrence of pliers on the coins minted in Malaga.

Historic Center of Malaga With 566,447 inhabitants, according to the latest data published by the INE(576,725 inhabitants at January 1, 2008, according to municipal statistics), the city of Malaga is the sixth largest of theentire population of Spain.

The sum of the population of the municipalities that make up the metropolitanarea amounts to 850,000 inhabitants (INE 2008).

In the population pyramid,21.68% of the residents in Malaga,is under 20 years old, and 14.11% are over 65 years old. In 2006, there was arelative increase of 2.09% of the population.

Bordering the northof the Malagaregion are Almogía, Cartama, Casabermeja, Comares and Colmenar, with Cartamaand Alhaurín de la Torre to the west and Rincon de la Victoria in the east. Malaga is then outlined by Torremolinos in the southwestand the Mediterranean Sea in the southeast.

During the 1960’s thepopulation tended to migrate to Europe’s more industrialized countries, mainlyGermany, Switzerland, Belgium and France. Today the population tends to move tothe outskirts of the city or to residential areas of the metropolitan such asAlhaurín de la Torre, Cartama, Rincon de la Victoria, and so on. In the lastdecade the total population has doubled.

Since the latetwentieth century Malaga has become a focus of attention for immigrants,attracted by the jobs generated by construction, tourism, and to a lesserextent, industry and commerce, both from other parts of Spain and abroad.29,717 inhabitants are foreigners, most commonly Moroccans (19.25% of allforeigners), then immigrants from Argentina, Sub Saharan Africa andin recent years, Chinese.

Malaga is also capital of the Costa del Sol, one of the major touristdestinations in the world, in addition to covering the municipalities mentionedin Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Rincon de la Victoria, Marbella, Nerja,Velez-Malaga Estepona, and so on. PollutionVehicular traffic is the main cause of pollution in the city.

In 2007 thecabinet of Air Pollution Control detected a total of 125 days with highpollution, 97 due to suspended particles and 28 caused by gas ozone. It alsosuffers through ‘Dry years’, when newspapers in Malaga reported even higher levels ofparticle contaminants in suspension along with other gases such as carbondioxide or nitrogen, which in previous years had never exceeded the permittedlevels.

For this reason, the historical center of Malaga is closing totraffic in an attempt to alleviate such pollution that attacks people’s health.

With regard to noise pollution in Malaga,it has also been found that the city is higher than 65.7 decibels, exceedingthe levels set by the World Health Organization.