Alicante

About Alicante

Alicante or Alacant (officially: Alacant / Alicante) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historical Mediterranean port. With a population of 358,608 as of 2024, it is the 2nd-largest city in the Valencian Community (after Valencia) and the 10th-largest in Spain.

Together with Elche (Elx) and other municipalities, Alicante forms a conurbation of nearly 1 million inhabitants.

The name of the city echoes the Arabic name Laqant (لَقَنْت‎), al-Laqant (اللَّقَنْت‎) or Al-qant (القنت‎), which in turn reflects the Latin Lucentum and Greek root Leuké (or Leuka), meaning 'white'.

The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7,000 years. The first tribes of hunter-gatherers moved gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earlier settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. By 1000 BC, Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron, and the pottery wheel. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the fortified...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.