Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡɾaŋ kaˈna.ɾja]; originally meaning "Great [Island] of Dogs") is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago. Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 150 kilometres (93 mi) off the northwestern coast of Africa and about 1,350 km (840 mi) from Europe.

Gran Canaria was populated by the Canarii, who may have arrived as early as 500 BC. The Canarii called the island Tamarán or Land of the Brave. After over a century of European (French, Portuguese...) incursions and attempts at conquest, the island was conquered on April 29, 1483, after a campaign that lasted five years, by the Crown of Castile, with the support of Queen Isabella I, a conquest which turned out to be an important step towards the expansion of the unified Spain.

The capital city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was founded on June 24, 1478, under the name "Real de Las Palmas", by Juan Rejón, head of the invading Castilian army. In 1492, Christopher Columbus anchored in the Port of Las Palmas (and spent some time on the island) on his first trip to the Americas. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is, jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands.

Maspalomas

Maspalomas (/ˌmɑːspəˈlɒməs/, Spanish: [maspaˈlomas], locally: [mahpaˈlomah]) is a tourist town in the south of the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, stretching from Bahía Feliz in the east to Meloneras in the west, including the resort towns of San Agustín and Playa del Inglés. Maspalomas constitutes the southernmost part of the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.

Overview

Before the era of tourism, Maspalomas was the name of a hamlet in what today is San Fernando de Maspalomas. Its name may derive from that of Rodrigo Mas de Palomar, a settler and soldier from Majorca, or from Francisco Palomar, a Genoese friend of Alonso Fernandez de Lugo who purchased 87 Guanche slaves from Güímar and settled in the area.

Present-day Maspalomas is the result of an ambitious development project, organized in the form of an International Ideas Contest (opened to any member of the International Union of Architects), held in 1961 under the auspice of Alejandro del Castillo, owner and promoter of most of the space under construction. The contest was won by the French office S.E.T.A.P. (incl. the urbanist Langueneau and the economist Michel Meill) and covered the 1,060 ha and 19 km of coast that constitute the core area of Maspalomas - Costa Canaria. The contest paved the way for a particular way of understanding "touristic" urbanism that served as model for later tourists developments in other Canary Islands.

Gran

Gran may refer to:

People

Places

Spanish language

in Spanish Gran means "Great" or "Greater", may refer to:

Other

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands (/kəˈnɛəri ˈaɪləndz/; Spanish: Islas Canarias [ˈizlas kaˈnaɾjas], locally: [ˈiʱlːaʰ kaˈnaːɾjaʰ]), also known as the Canaries (Spanish: Canarias), are a Spanish archipelago located just off the southern coast of Morocco, 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of its southern border. The Canaries constitute one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities and are among the outermost regions (OMR) of the European Union proper. The main islands are (from largest to smallest) Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. The archipelago also includes a number of islands and islets: La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este.

The archipelago's beaches, climate and important natural attractions, especially Maspalomas in Gran Canaria and Teide National Park and Mount Teide (a World Heritage Site) in Tenerife (the third tallest volcano in the world measured from its base on the ocean floor), make it a major tourist destination with over 12 million visitors per year, especially Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. The islands have a subtropical climate, with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation varies depending on location and elevation. Green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the temperature inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands.

Playa del Inglés

Playa del Inglés (/ˈplɑːjə dɛl ɪŋˈɡlɛs/, Spanish: [ˈplaʝa ðel iŋˈgles], locally: [ˈplaʝa ðel ĩˈgleʰ], lit. "Englishman's Beach") is a sea resort in the south coast of the island of Gran Canaria. It is part of the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, and is a popular tourist attraction. The resident population was 7,515 in 2013.

There is some dispute upon the origin of the resort's name. One explanation is that an English bohemian moved to the untouched area early in the 20th Century. However, it has been stated that the Bohemian was actually French, but was mistaken as English by the locals.

Geography

Playa del Inglés forms a large sea resort zone, together with the adjacent resort towns San Agustín, Maspalomas and Sonnenland. The Maspalomas Dunes are situated south of the resort.

The area remained largely unspoiled until the 1960s when large scale tourist development changed the resort. Many of these constructions were large concrete tower blocks, however many have undergone renovation in recent years to make them more sympathetic to the surrounding area. There are a number of large shopping centres in the resort with the 'Yumbo' and 'Kasbah' being the largest.