Almería (UK: /ˌælməˈriːə/, US also /ˌɑːl-/, Spanish: [almeˈɾi.a] ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. The city lies in southeastern Iberia, extending primarily in between the eastern fringes of the Sierra de Gádor and the Andarax riverbed along the coastline of the Gulf of Almería, a large inlet of the Mediterranean Sea. The municipality has a population of 201,946.
Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city grew wealthy during the Islamic era, becoming a world city throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. It enjoyed an active port that traded silk, oil, and raisins. This period was brought to an end with the 1147 conquest of the city by a Christian coalition. Control over Almería switched hands over the rest of the middle ages. In the early modern period, with the onset of Barbary piracy, the ethnic cleansing of moriscos in the Kingdom of Granada, and several natural calamities, urban decay accrued. The 19th-century reactivation of mining activity (lead) in the hinterland fostered commercial activity and demographic growth.
