ERYTHEIA/GADES/CADIZ

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MARK PONTA'S REQUEST:






                                                        E R Y T H E I A





                     


Erytheia ("the red one") is one of the Hesperides. The name was applied to the island close to the coast

of southern Hispania, that was the site of the original Punic colony of Gades (modern Cadiz). Pliny's

Natural History (4.36) records of the island of Gades: "On the side which looks towards Spain, at about

 100 paces distance, is another long island, three miles wide, on which the original city of Gades stood.

By Ephorus and Philistides it is called Erythia, by Timæus and Silenus Aphrodisias, and by the natives the

Isle of Juno." The island was the seat of Geryon, who was overcome by Heracles.


                   

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               IMAGE OF BAHIA DE CADIZ :  CMA de la Junta de Andalucia





The Bahia de Cadiz is a complex of Natural Parks (Parque Natural, 2 Parajes Naturales, ZEPA) and an important Ramsar site, and one of the best examples of Atlantic tidal marshes.in the Iberian Peninsula. The position of the site between Doñana and the Gibraltar Straights help to make the bay one of the most important coastal wetlands in southern Europe. Natural habitats also include sandy beaches and rocky islets. The Bay of Cadiz is a crucial stopover site for migrating, breeding and wintering waterbirds, hosting more than 1% of 14 different East Atlantic populations. The Bay is crucial for spawning, nursery and feeding for a number of commercially important fish.

The Bay was settled in ancient times by the Phonecians who built the first of the salt pans. Many of the once-huge expanse of salt pans, have been transformed into aquaculture pools or in some cases have reverted to more natural habitats. Outside the protected area much of the original saltmarsh area has been drained to make way for urban devlopment - it is surrounded by urban centres (400,000 inhabitants spread between Cádiz, San Fernando, Puerto Real, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota ) and the Cadiz port facilities, creating urban and tourism pressures on the protected area, as can be seen below.

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The Bahia de Cadiz is a complex of Natural Parks (Parque Natural, 2 Parajes Naturales, ZEPA) and an important Ramsar site, and one of the best examples of Atlantic tidal marshes.in the Iberian Peninsula. The position of the site between Doñana and the Gibraltar Straights help to make the bay one of the most important coastal wetlands in southern Europe. Natural habitats also include sandy beaches and rocky islets. The Bay of Cadiz is a crucial stopover site for migrating, breeding and wintering waterbirds, hosting more than 1% of 14 different East Atlantic populations. The Bay is crucial for spawning, nursery and feeding for a number of commercially important fish.

The Bay was settled in ancient times by the Phonecians who built the first of the salt pans. Many of the once-huge expanse of salt pans, have been transformed into aquaculture pools or in some cases have reverted to more natural habitats. Outside the protected area much of the original saltmarsh area has been drained to make way for urban devlopment - it is surrounded by urban centres (400,000 inhabitants spread between Cádiz, San Fernando, Puerto Real, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota ) and the Cadiz port facilities, creating urban and tourism pressures on the protected area, as can be seen below.


 
 
Information from Ramsar Directory of Wetlands of International Importance


Importance: The Bahia de Cadiz is an outstanding example of Atlantic tidal marshes on the Iberian Peninsula. The site supports 200 species of birds (more than 65,000 individuals in wintertime) and 81 of macroinvertebrates (mainly crustaceans and moluscos), including globally threatened species. The Bay of Cadiz is a crucial refuelling stop for migrating and wintering waterbirds. It hosts more than 1% of the individuals of 14 different East Atlantic populations.

Wetland Types: The wetland habitats include tidal marshes, sandy beaches and rocky islets.

Biological/Ecological notes: The Bahía de Cádiz presents a high primary and secondary production due to the important flow of matter and energy, characteristic of these kind of ecological border areas.

Hydrological/Physical notes: The most representative soils in the site are sandy and saline. Much of the saltmarshes have been transformed into salt pans. Nowadays, most of them are no longer in use and have reverted to more natural habitats or been transformed into pans for aquaculture. Annual average temperature is about 18ºC oscillating between 12.7 ºC in January and 24,5ºC in August.

Human Uses: Most of the area is public land. Human activities in the site include aquaculture, salt exploitation and tourism. The Bay was settled in ancient times, as revealed by archeological remains.

Conservation Measures: Bahía de Cádiz was designated as Natural Park in 1989. It is an EC Special Protection Area (Birds Directive) and a proposed EC Site of Community Interest (Habitats Directive).

Adverse Factors: The site is surrounded by urban centres (400,000 inhabitants) and the Cadiz ports facilities. This creates urban, tourism and leisure pressures on the protected area.

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ERYTHEIA


 
The home of the three-bodied warrior, Geryon, slain by Herakles (Heracles) in the course of his Tenth Labor (Taking the Cattle of Geryon).

The location of Erytheia is simply given as a land in the far West; on the long journey to Erytheia, Herakles became so weary of the burning heat of Helios (the Sun), he raised his bow and shot an arrow at the burning god; Helios was so amused at Herakles’ impudence that he gave the hero a golden bowl to traverse the western sea.

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ERYTHEIA (isla)


De Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

Erytheia es el nombre de la pequeña isla septentrional del antiguo grupo de las Gadeiras. Según Plinio, el término era utilizado por los geógrafos Eforo y Filístides, y hacía referencia a la hija de Gerión, el primer rey de la mitología tartésica.

En ella venció Hércules a Gerión y le robó sus rebaños de bueyes. Según Estrabón, era el nombre que le aplicaban los indígenas al lugar donde se había establecido la primera colonia fenicia. La ciudad ha desaparecido por la explotación de sus canteras y la erosión marina, y debía extenderse desde el Castillo de Santa Catalina hasta la punta del Nao, donde se encontraba el templo de Astarté o de la Venus marina.



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HERE'S THE TRANSLATION FROM MY RUSTY SPANISH:


Erytheia - island

From Wikipedia - the Free Encyclopaedia


Erytheia is the name of the small northern island of the ancient group of the Gadeiras.  According to
Pliny, the term was used by the geographers Eforo and Filistides and made reference to the daughter
of Gerion, the first king of Tartessian mythology.

There Hercules won over Gerion and he stole his herd of cattle. 

According to Strabo, the name that was applied by the indigineous people that lived there, where the first
Phoenician colony was established.

The city disappeared because of quarries and the marine erosion, and it must have extended to the Point of Neo, where one would run into the temple of Astarte or the sea Venus.

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see also:

http://books.google.com/books?id=kzMNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=erytheia&source=web&ots=QXClbjqOZw&sig=H9wF2d6ixG6mn3LATVai8nmVAag#PPA4,M1

It will not print for me, but here is an important part:

FROM HERODOTUS:



"...........Hercules, when he was carrying off the cows of Geryon, arrived in the region which is now inhabited by the
Scyths, in an island called by the Greeks ERYTHEIA, near Gades, which is beyond the Pillars of Hercules upon the Ocean.  Now some say the Ocean begins in the east and runs the whole way around the world; but they give no
proof that this is really so............"



                           

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Cádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a province which is one of the eight comprising the autonomous community of Andalusia.

Cádiz, the 2nd oldest continuously-inhabited city in western Europe, has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. It is also the site of the University of Cádiz.

Its peculiar location at the end of a narrow "peninsula" protruding into the Bay of Cádiz lends added charm to this ancient city. In actuality, Cádiz is on an island which is separated from the mainland by a larger island, the Isla de Léon; thus, to reach the mainland from Cádiz, it is necessary to cross a narrow channel to the low-lying Isla de Léon, before crossing another narrow channel to the mainland. This geographical circumstance has played, time and again, a significant part in the city's history, commerce, and culture. Isolated behind its high thick medieval walls on its improbable site in the middle of the bay, Cádiz, on approach from the sea, presents a dramatic and aesthetically appealing view.

Despite its unique site, Cadiz is, in most respects, a typically Andalusian city with a wealth of attractive vistas and well-preserved historical landmarks. The older part of Cádiz, within the remnants of the city walls, is commonly referred to as the Old City (in Spanish, Casco Antiguo). It is characterized by the antiquity of its various quarters (barrios), among them El Populo, La Viña, and Santa Maria, which present a marked contrast to the newer areas of town. While the Old City's street plan consists largely of narrow winding alleys connecting large plazas, newer areas of Cádiz typically have wide avenues and more modern buildings. In addition, the city is dotted by numerous parks where exotic plants, including giant trees supposedly brought to Spain by Columbus, flourish.

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                                                                C A D I Z




 Etymology of the city's name


Gadir (in Phoenician: גדר), the original name given to the outpost established here by the Phoenicians, means "castle", "fortress", or, more generally, "walled stronghold" or simply "wall". The name is equivalent to the place-name, Agadir, which is common in north Africa. To this day, "agadir" means "wall" in the Berber language. Gadir became the most important Phoenician enclave on the Iberian Peninsula.

 
1813 Map of CádizLater, the city became known by a similar Attic Greek name, Gadeira, τὰ Γάδειρα. In Ionic Greek, the name is spelled slightly differently: Γήδειρα. This spelling appears in the histories written by Herodotus. Rarely, the name is spelled ἡ Γαδείρα, as, for example, in the writings of Erastosthenes (as attested by Stephanus of Byzantium).

In the Latín language, the city was known as Gades; in modern Arabic, it is called قادس, Qādis.


[edit] Population and demographic trends
According to the 2006 census, the population of Cádiz proper was 130,561, and the population of the entire metropolitan area was estimated to be 629,054. Cádiz is the seventeenth largest Spanish city. However, in recent years, the city has been steadily losing population; it is the only municipality of the Bay of Cádiz (the comarca composed of Cádiz, Chiclana, El Puerto de Santa María, Puerto Real, and San Fernando), whose population has diminished. Between 1995 and 2006, it lost more than 14,000 inhabitants, a decrease of 9%.

Among the causes of this loss of population is the peculiar geography of Cádiz; the city lies on a narrow spit of land hemmed-in by the sea. Consequently, there is a pronounced shortage of buildable land. The city has very little vacant land, and a high proportion of its housing stock is relatively low in density. (That is to say, many buildings are only two or three stories tall, and they are only able to house a relatively small number of people within their "footprint".) The older quarters of Cádiz are full of buildings that, because of their age and historical significance, are not eligible for urban renewal. Replacement of these old buildings with high-density apartment projects would allow Cádiz to sustain a higher population.

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Two other physical factors tend to limit the city's population. It is impossible to increase the amount of land available for building by reclaiming land from the sea; a new national law governing coastal development thwarts this solution. Also, because Cádiz is built on a sandspit, it is a costly proposition to sink foundations deep enough to support the high-rise buildings that would allow for a higher population density. As it stands, the city's skyline is not substantially different than it was in medieval times. A seventeenth-century watchtower, the Tavira tower, still commands a panoramic view of the city and the bay despite its relatively modest 45-metre height.




Cádiz is the provincial capital with the highest rate of unemployment in Spain. This, too, tends to depress the population level. Young Gaditanos, those between 18 and 30 years of age, have been migrating, to other places in Spain (Madrid and Castellón, chiefly), as well as emigrating to other places in Europe and the Americas. The population younger than twenty years old is only 20.58% of the total, and the population older than sixty-five is 21.67%, making Cádiz one of the most aged cities in all of Spain.




Despite these trends, some are cheered by the fact that the other towns and cities surrounding the Bay of Cádiz are growing modestly, absorbing some of the population fleeing the capital. Improvements in roads and railways have allowed people to commute to Cádiz for work more easily. Increasingly, outlying communities, like Puerto Real and San Fernando, are providing bedrooms for Cádiz's workforce. In recent years, Cádiz has become more of a place to work than a place to live.

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                                                                     C A D I Z




http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/30/Anthropoid_sarcophagus_discovered_at_Cadiz_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_15052.png/200px-Anthropoid_sarcophagus_discovered_at_Cadiz_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_15052.png


 
Phoenician sarcophagus found in Cadiz, now in the Archaeological Museum of Cádiz. The sarcophagus is thought to have been designed and paid for by a Phoenician merchant and made in Greece with Egyptian influenceThe city was originally founded as Gadir (Phoenician גדר "walled city") by the Phoenicians, who used it in their trade with Tartessos, a city-state believed by archæologists to be somewhere near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, about thirty kilometres northwest of Cádiz. (Its exact location has never been firmly established.)

Cádiz is regarded as the most ancient city still standing in western Europe. Traditionally, its founding is dated to 1104 BCE (Veleyo Patérculo in Hist. Rom. 1:2,1-3), although, as of 2004, no archaeological discoveries date back further than the 9th century BCE. One resolution to this discrepancy has been to assume that Cádiz was merely a small seasonal trading post in its earliest days.

Later, the Greeks would know the city as Gadira or Gadeira. According to Greek legend, Gadir was founded by Hercules after performing his fabled tenth labor, the slaying of Geryon, a monstrous warrior-titan with three heads and three torsos joined to a single pair of legs. As late as the early third century BCE, a tumulus (a large earthen mound) near Cádiz was associated with Geryon's final resting-place.[1]

One of the city's notable features during antiquity was the temple dedicated to the Phoenician god Melqart. (Melqart was associated with Hercules by the Greeks.) According to the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, the temple was still standing at the beginning of the third century CE. Some historians, based in part on this source, believe that the columns of this temple were the origin of the myth of the pillars of Hercules.[2]

Around 500 BCE, the city fell under the sway of Carthage. Cádiz became a base of operations for Hannibal's[citation needed] conquest of southern Iberia. However, in 206 BC, the city fell to Roman forces under Scipio Africanus. The people of Cádiz welcomed the victors. Under the Romans, the city was renamed Gades and flourished as a Roman naval base. By the time of Augustus, Cádiz was home to more than five hundred equites (members of one of the two upper social classes), a concentration of notable citizens rivaled only by Padua and Rome itself. It was the principal city of a Roman colony, Augusta Urbs Julia Gaditana. However, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Gades's commercial importance began to fade.

The 5th century overthrow of Roman power in Spain by the Visigoths saw the destruction of the original city, of which there remain few remnants today. Under Moorish rule between 711 and 1262, the city was called Qādis (Arabic قادس), from which the modern Spanish name, Cádiz, was derived. The Moors were finally ousted by Alphonso X of Castile who, in 1262, chased the Moors.

 
Bombardment of Cádiz, 1634, by Francisco de Zurbarán, in the Prado Museum, MadridDuring the Age of Exploration, the city experienced a renaissance. Christopher Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his second and fourth voyages, and the city later became the home port of the Spanish treasure fleet. Consequently, the city became a major target of Spain's enemies. The 16th century also saw a series of failed raids by Barbary corsairs. The greater part of the old town was consumed in the conflagration of 1569. A raid by the Englishman, Sir Francis Drake, was repulsed outside the city in April 1587, although he succeeded in torching a portion of the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Cádiz.[1] The city suffered another raid in 1596 by the Earl of Essex and Lord Charles Howard, who sacked part of the town but were unable to hold the city and port. In the Anglo-Spanish War Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Cádiz from 1655 to 1657. In the 1702 Battle of Cadiz, the British attacked again under Sir George Rooke and James, Duke of Ormonde, but they were repelled after a costly siege.

In the 18th century, the sand bars of the river Guadalquivir forced the Spanish government to transfer the port monopolizing trade with Spanish America from upriver Seville to Cádiz on the Atlantic coast. During this time, the city experienced a golden age during which three-quarters of all Spanish trade was with the Americas. It became one of Spain's greatest and most cosmopolitan cities and home to trading communities from many countries, among whom the richest was the Irish community. Many of today's historic buildings in the Old City date from this era.

By the end of the century, however, the city suffered another series of attacks. The British blockade and siege of Cádiz between February, 1797 and April, 1798 was, by most standards, a costly failure. Nelson, returning from his defeat at Santa Cruz, bombarded the city in 1800. During Napoleon's conquest of Europe, Cádiz was one of the few cities in Spain that was able to resist the French invasion.

Members of the Irish community in eighteenth-century Cádiz prospered, particularly in the last quarter of that century. Their success was due mainly to their achievement as merchants engaged in the colonial trade. Small in number compared to other immigrant groups, they played a disproportionately prominent role in civic and ecclesiastical life, and as patrons of the arts in their adopted city. Their success stories in Cádiz contrast starkly with the lack of opportunity available to them in Ireland. Nevertheless, they did maintain vigorous mercantile and dynastic connections with their homeland. Their accomplishments were all the more remarkable in that they were achieved against a background of fierce competition in Europe's most dynamic entrepôt of the day.[3] It is a connection that continutes to this day.

Cádiz was also the seat of the liberal Cortes (parliament) that fought against Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte (also known as Joseph I of Spain) in the Peninsular War and where the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed. The citizens again revolted in 1820 to secure a renewal of this constitution; the revolution spread across Spain, leading to the imprisonment of King Ferdinand VII in the city of Cádiz. French forces secured the release of Ferdinand in 1823 and suppressed liberalism. In 1868, Cádiz was once again the seat of a revolution, resulting in the eventual abdication and exile of Queen Isabella II. (The same Cádiz Cortes decided to reinstate the monarchy under King Amadeo I just two years later.)

 
In recent years, the city has undergone much reconstruction. Many monuments, cathedrals, and landmarks have been cleaned and restored, adding to the considerable charm of this ancient city.

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MAP OF CADIZ - 1886

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Castillo San Sebastian in the backgroung and "La Caleta" - the ancient Phoenician Port