Port city (pop., 2001: 184,686), southeastern Spain.
Founded by the Carthaginians under Hasdrubal in 227 BC, it was captured by Scipio Africanus the Elder in 209 BC and made a Roman colony. It was sacked by the Goths in AD 425. It was held by the Moors from 711 until it was taken by James I of Aragon in 1269. In the 16th century Philip II made it a great naval port; it remains Spain's chief Mediterranean naval base as well as a commercial port.