Murcia

This is an important city services in the tertiary sector, which has happened to its par-exporter thanks to its famous and fertile orchard, for which it is known. Among the most important industries are food, textiles, chemicals, distilling, construction, furniture, and building materials. Murcia is also a major center for the university tradition, since it has the first university founded in 1272.

Murcia is culturally notable for its cathedral, its folklore, and especially during the colorful spring festival, the Salzillo of Bethlehem, and the Holy Week processions.

Geography

The township has an area of approximately 882 km² and is divided from north to south into two distinct parts separated by a series of mountain ranges that make up the so-called Cordillera Sur: Sierra de Carrascoy, El Puerto, Villares, Columbares, and Altaona Escalona.

These two areas are known as Campo de Murcia in the south (which, geographically, is part of the natural region of Campo de Cartagena) and Huerta de Murcia to the north of the mountains.

The city is located 43 m in the Vega Media del Segura. The Segura River runs through the city from west to east. It is a river of Mediterranean rainfall regime, with low flow but strong flood, flooding the capital of Murcia in 1946, 1948, 1973 and 1989.

Murcia is a city, the capital of the town of the same name and of the Autonomous Community of Murcia. It is located in southeastern Spain on the River Segura. With 430,571 inhabitants ( 2008), Murcia occupies seventh place in the list of towns in Spain by population. It is the capital of the region’s natural Huerta de Murcia and its metropolitan area.

Neighboring Municipalities

The municipality of Murcia borders the following municipalities:

East: Santomera, Beniel, Orihuela, and Pilar de la Horadada.

South: Fuente Alamo de Murcia, Torre Pacheco, Cartagena, and San Javier.

West: Alhama de Murcia, Librilla, Mula, and Campos del Rio.

North: Las Torres de Cotillas, Molina de Segura, and Fortuna.

Surrounded entirely by Murcia: Alcantarilla.

Climate

Given its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, Murcia enjoys a kind of semi-arid Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and hot summers. There are more than 300 days of sunshine a year, with little rainfall concentrated in these few days, especially in autumn when suffering from the cold drop.

The Guadalentin River (also called Sangonera on its way through the city) runs through the channel of the Regueron south of the valley and flows into the downstream Segura River.

The best-known and significant landscape of the municipal area is its garden, which dominates much of the town, but decades of pressure from urban expansion has made it almost disappear.

It is a flat area that lies on the so-called pre-Murcian depression but has mountains that surround the wide valley of the Segura, with the mountains of Cordillera and the South Monteagudo steep hill in the middle of the plain.

In addition to the garden and urban areas, the municipality also has extensive landscapes: badlands, pine forests of Aleppo pines in the mountains of the range, and areas of typical upland field in the Mediterranean.

Also part of the municipality of Murcia’s most natural area are El Valle and Carrascoy, which have the designations of Regional Park.

Temperatures range between 16° C and 4° C in January and 34° C and 20° C in August, while over 40° C during summers. The all-time record temperature recorded in Spain was 47.8° C in Murcia on July 29, 1876.

Murcia also holds the absolute record for highest temperature recorded in Spain in the 20th century, with 47.2° C, recorded in the observatory Murcia/Alfonso X on July 4, 1994.