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Situated between the Valencia region and Andalucía. Murcia was in the past desirable by Castilians and Valencians alike, however it managed to develop a strong character of its own. Murcia was home to the ancient Iberians, Carthaginians and Romans, as well as the Visigoths and Moors. All found a land of plenty, and Murcia evolved as a mixture of the different civilizations that passed through Spain. One of the most fair-weather regions of Spain, Murcia receives three thousand hours of sunshine a year, and the Mar Menor ("Little Sea"), a huge salt water lagoon, enclosed by sand banks that is the largest of the European continent, provides magnificently warm waters and many extra miles of superb beachfront. Conditions are ideal for creating salt flats, and salt was extracted by the ancients to preserve fish, today it is an industry for Murcia. At the northern end of the lagoon the salt pans and wading flamingos present a dramatic scene.
Murcia yields the finest fruit and garden produce and is known for the intense flavour and vivid colours of its vegetables. It’s family farming plots and rice fields, both products of centuries-old Moorish irrigation systems, turn an otherwise parched landscape richly green. In Alcantarilla there is still a vast functioning Arab waterwheel, turned by the power of river waters flowing from the mountains that scoops up the water as it passes, and deposits it in aqueducts that lead to the huertas. Murcia penetrates much further into the mountainous centre of Spain than other east coast areas, and it is in the hillier terrain that the fine Jumilla wines are made.
The capital city of Murcia is known for fine dining, for its Old Quarter and its singular Salzillo Museum, where the dramatic, life-size wood polychrome works of the prolific eighteenth century Murcian sculptor, Francisco Salzillo, are concentrated.
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