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Andalusia (Andalucía in Spanish) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute Spain. Its capital is Seville. Andalucia is bounded on the north by Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha, on the east by Murcia, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and Gibraltar, and on the west by Portugal. Tartessos, the capital of a once great power, was located in Andalusia.
More can be found in the entry Hispania Baetica, the name of the Roman province that corresponds to the region. The Islamic history can be found in the entry al-Andalus; "Andalusia" derives from this name the Moors gave to this land.
The Spanish spoken in the Americas is largely descended from the Andalusian dialect of Castilian Spanish due to the role played by Seville as the gateway to Spain's American territories in the 16th and 17th centuries.
A lot of Moorish architecture is found in Andalusia, because it was the last stronghold of the Moors before the reconquista by the Catholic Monarchs completed in 1492. The most famous are the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Córdoba and the Torre del Oro and Giralda towers in Sevilla. Archaeological remains include Medina Azahara, near Córdoba.
Andalusia is divided into 8 provinces:
Sevilla
Granada
Córdoba
Cádiz
Málaga
Huelva
Jaén
Almería
Major cities in Andalusia are:
Algeciras
Seville
Málaga
Marbella
Granada
Córdoba
Jerez
Cádiz
Almería
Huelva
Jaén
Extract from Wikipedia
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