n.
Spanish Andalucía
Autonomous community (pop., 2001: 7,357,558) and historic region, southern Spain.
It occupies an area of 33,822 sq mi (87,599 sq km); the capital is Sevilla . It is traversed by mountain ranges, including the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada; its main river is the Guadalquivir . Andalusia has a long history of inhabitation: by the Phoenicians (at what is now Cádiz, 0441; 1100 BC), the Carthaginians (480 BC), and the Romans. The Arabic name Al-Andalus was originally applied by the Moors to the whole Iberian Peninsula. When the Umayyad dynasty established its court at Córdoba , this area became the peninsula's intellectual and political centre. It returned to Spanish rule in 1492 and remained a province until divided in 1833 into the eight modern provinces. A mining and agricultural region, Andalusia also features beaches along the Costa del Sol that attract the tourist trade.