Friday, December 25, 2015


Palmeral of Elche


The Palmeral of Elche, a landscape of groves of date palms, was formally laid out, with elaborate irrigation systems, at the time the Muslim city of Elche was erected, towards the end of the tenth century A.C., when much of the Iberian peninsula was Arab. The Palmeral is an oasis, a system for agrarian production in arid areas. It is also a unique example of Arab agricultural practices on the European continent. Cultivation of date palms in Elche is known at least since the Iberian times, dating around the fifth century B.C.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/930



The Palmeral of Elche is an oasis-like landscape of date palms, transferred to Europe from North Africa by the Moors. It was constructed during the Arab occupation of this area in Spain over 1000 years ago. The inhabitants of Elche used well known techniques from the Near East and the Sahara-region to let this desert bloom. 

The site consists of 67 different palm groves. They contain more than 11,000 palm trees, mostly date palms (Phoenix dactylifera), with individual specimens up to 300 years old.

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/palmeralelche.html

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