scubish.com: Scuba diving Palma De Mallorca - Spain

Palma is the major city and port in the island of Mallorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of the island on the Bay of Palma. As of the 2005 census, the population of the city of Palma proper was 375,048, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be 517,285, ranking as the 12th-largest urban area of Spain. Almost half of the total population of Mallorca live in Palma. The archipelago of Cabrera, though widely separated from Palma proper, is administratively considered part of the municipality. Its airport, Son Sant Joan, is one of the busiest in Europe. The Marivent Palace was offered by the city to the then Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain. The royals have since spent their summer holidays in Palma.

History

Palma (Palmaria) was founded as a Roman camp upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. The turbulent history of the city saw it the subject of several Vandal sackings during the fall of the Roman Empire, then reconquered by the Byzantine, then colonised by the Moors (who called it Medina Mayurqa), and finally established by James I of Aragon.

Roman Period
After the conquest of Mallorca, it was loosely incorporated into the province of Tarraconensis by 123 BC; Romans founded two new cities: Palmaria on the south of the island, and Pollentia in the northeast - on the site of a Phoenician settlement. Whilst Pollentia acted as port to Roman cities on the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, Palmaria was the port used for destinations in Africa, such as Carthage, and Hispania, such as Saguntum, Gades, and Carthago Nova. Though no visible remains of this period are seen in present day Palma, archaeological discoveries still occur whenever excavating under the city centre.

Byzantine Period
Though the period between the Fall of Rome and the Muslim conquest is not well known (due to lack of documents)), there is clear evidence of Byzantine presence in the city, as indicated by mosaics found in the oldest parts of the Cathedral, which was in early medieval times a paleo-Christian temple.

Muslim Period
Between 902 and 1229, the city was under Islamic domination, in some form, as described below.

Under the Caliphate

The arrival of Moors in the Balearic Islands occurred at the beginning of the VIII century. During this period, the population developed an economy based on self sufficiency and piracy, and even showed evidence of a relative hierarchy. The dominant groups took advantage of the Byzantine withdrawal due to Islamic expansion, to reinforce their domination upon the rest of the population, thus ensuring their power and the gradual abandonment of Imperial structures.

In 707, a Muslim fleet, under the command of Abd Allah ibn Musa, son of the governor of Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusayr, stopped at the island. It appears that Abd Allah convinced the factional powers of the city to accept a peace treaty. This treaty granted, in exchange...