Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucía) is a region in southern Spain. Andalusia is the most populated and second largest of Spain’s seventeen autonomous regions. Its capital is Seville. Andalusia is bordered to the north of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha, in the east to Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Portugal and the Atlantic, and in the south to the Mediterranean and Gibraltar.

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More about Andalucia

One of several theories – none of which are proven – is that the name of Andalusia derives from the Arabic name “Al Andalus”, which refers to those parts of the Iberian island were under Islamic rule. Tartessos, the capital of the former tartessiska civilization, was located in Andalusia, and was called in the Bible “Tarshish.” Andalusian culture was strongly affected by the eight centuries the area was under Muslim occupation, which ended in 1492 when the Catholics withdrew Granada.