Málaga is located on the southern coast of Andalucía (written “Andalusia” in English). The autonomous community is home to many of the most iconic symbols of Spain, especially flamenco music.

Andalucía is the southernmost part of continental Europe. It is much closer to Northern Africa than it is to France, and has a history and culture heavily influenced by this proximity. Much of Spain was ruled by Muslim empires for hundreds of years, until the Catholic kings reconquered the country completely in the 15th century. These empires left their mark across Andalucía (Córdoba’s spectacular cathedral was previously a mosque and Granada’s Alhambra fortress features breathtakingly intricate carvings and tilework).

The region has both an Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, and the highest mountains in the Iberian Peninsula (while it is also the hottest part of Spain, during the winter you can ski up at Granada’s Sierra Nevada resort). You’ll find castles and white-walled villages with impossibly narrow streets up in its hills, and oranges, olives and vineyards growing in the lower lands—Andalucía is one of the most important agricultural regions in Europe.

Andalucía has one of the largest communities of Romany gypsies (“gitanos” in Spanish) in the world—flamenco predominantly originated among the region’s gitano communities. If you learned Spanish anywhere else, you may notice many local eccentricities in the way the language is spoken in the South. In fact, as many of the people who emigrated from Spain to colonies in the Americas came from Andalucía, there are strong influences from Andalucían Spanish within Latin American dialects.

To find out more, visit Andalucía’s official tourism website.