# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Granada (1.)

See also Province of Granada on Wikipedia; Granada on Wikipedia, Granada in the 11th edition; and the disclaimer.
​GRANADA, a modern province of Spain, consisting of the central portion of the old kingdom of the same name, is bounded on the N. and N.E. by Jaen, Albacete, and Murcia, on the E. by Almeria, on the S. by the Mediter ranean, and on the W. by Malaga and Cordova, having an area of 4937 English square miles and ail estimated popula tion (1870) of 485,346. It includes, and indeed chiefly consists of, the western and loftier portion of the Sierra Nevada, which in the peaks Cerro de Mulhacen and Picacho de la Veleta, overlooking the town of Granada, attains the heights of 11,781 and 11,597 feet respectively. From the cantral chain of this Sierra all the principal rivers of the province take their rise: theGuadianamenor which, flowing past Guadix in a northerly direction, falls into the Guadal quivir in the neighbourhood of Ubeda ; the Genii which, after traversing the vega of Granada, leaves the province a little to the westward of Loja, and joins the Guadalquivir betwixt Cordova and Seville ; and the Rio Grande which falls into the Mediterranean at Motril. The climate in the lower valleys and the narrow fringe along the coast is warm, but on the higher grounds of the interior is somewhat severe ; and the vegetation varies accordingly from the subtropical to the alpine. The soil of the plains is very productive, and that of the vega of Granada is considered the richest in the whole peninsula ; from the days of the Moors it has been subjected to most careful and systematic irrigation, and it continues to yield in great abundance and in good quality wheat, barley, maize, wine, oil, sugar, flax, cotton, silk, and almost every variety of fruit. There are productive mines of lead, silver, copper, zinc, and man ganese, which in 1866 gave employment to 1099 persons; mining indeed, with various agricultural and horticultural operations, including bee-farming, constitutes the staple industry of the province. In the mountains immediately surrounding the city of Granada occur many kinds of ala baster, some of which are very fine ; there are also quanti ties of jasper and other precious stones in considerable variety. Mineral waters, chiefly chalybeate and sulphurous, are abundant, the most important springs being those of Alhama, which have a temperature of 118 Fahr. The chief centres of population are, besides Granada, the capital, Mobril, Alhama, Loja, Guadix, and Huescar. Apart from the great highways traversing the province, which are ex cellent, the means of communication are few, and on the whole bad. The only railway is that which connects Granada with Bobadilla on the Malaga and Cordova line. During the Roman period, Granada from the time of Augustus formed an undistinguished portion of the province of Bsetica, of which the four conventus juridici were Cadiz, Cordova, Ecija, and Seville. Along with the rest of Andalucia, as a result of the great invasion from the north in the 5th century, it fell to the lot of the Vandals. Under the caliphs of Cordova, onwards from the 8th century, the town of Granada rapidly gained in importance, and ultimately became the seat of a provincial government, which, after the fall of the Ommiades (1038), ranked with Seville, Jaen, and others as an independent principality. By the conquests of St Ferdinand in the first half of the 13th century, Granada was left the sole representative of the Mahometan power in Spain ; and even it was compelled to pay tribute to the sovereigns of Castile. The limits of the kingdom at that time were nearly identical with those of the province prior to 1833, the modern provinces of Malaga and Almeria being until that date included. It is said to have contained a population of 3,000,000, and to have had considerable commerce, especially with Italy in silk. On the capitulation of Boabdil in January 1492, Granada was united to the crown of Castile, but with special privileges which were afterwards treacherously withdrawn.