The city's heyday was in the 11th century (just after the Alcazaba was built), when the taifa (small independent state) of Almeria was second only to Seville, its port was the most important in Andalucia humming with silk and ceramics exports, the city was a centre for philosophy and poetry, and merchants from Egypt, Syria, France and Italy filled its streets. It is said that at the height of its power, "When Almeria was Almeria, Granada was but its farm". Almeria means "Mirror of the Sea" in Arabic.

La Chanca is a colourful area, both culturally and visually, located between the Alcazaba and the old town and stretching down the hill to the port. Its brightly-painted houses, begging to be photographed against the red-tiled rooves, brown hills and azure sky, are inhabited by gitanos (gypsies) and fishermen; some of the cave dwellings are still lived in.

Antequera has one of the largest and most important prehistoric burial sites in Spain, dating from the Bronze Age. Dolmen Menga is the largest single dolmen in western Europe, and dates from around 2,500BC. It has a 25-metre-long subterranean gallery lined with 32 four-metre-tall stone slabs (mined from a nearby quarry), the largest weighing 180 tons, leading to a burial chamber.

The Roman era brought great prosperity to Antequera (named "the Ancient City", or Antikaria, by them). Among the treasures from that age are a very rare, small bronze statue of a boy, "Ephebus of Antequera", dating from the 1st century AD

Antequera is famous for its desserts, such as ienmesabe (meaning "tastes good to me"), a sponge-based pudding with almonds and cinnamon; and angelorum a concoction of sponge, meringue and egg yolk. As well as in local pastelerias, you can buy these in the Convento de Belen, and the Convento de San Jose.

One reason for Marbella´s popularity is its famously pleasant climate. Sheltered by the peaks of the Sierra Blanca mountain range (highest point,1.215m), which back onto the town, it has a micro-climate.

Former mayor of Marbella, Jesus Gil y Gil was a business tycoon (construction) and controversial chairman of Atletico Madrid football club. A man of brusque character and extremely right-wing views, Gil encouraged wealthy British, Russian and Italian criminals to come and live in Marbella in the 1970s and 80s.

In the 1946, German Prince Maximilian de Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his son, Alfonso, were driving near the fishing village of Marbella (pop: 900) when they had a problem with their Rolls-Royce. Alfonso liked the place, so he bought some land, built a house for himself, and sold plots to his Rothschild and Thyssen friends. His own residence, Finca Santa Margarita, became so popular with visitors that he turned it into the Marbella Club in 1954, the Costa del Sol's first luxury hotel. Alfonso's mother was a Spanish marquesa, giving him access to Europe's ruling elite.