Cartagena (
37°36'N 0°59'W? / ?37.6°N 0.983°W? / 37.6; -0.983Coordinates 37°36'N 0°59'W? / ?37.6°N 0.983°W? / 37.6; -0.983) is a Spanish Mediterranean city and
naval station in the southeast of the
Iberian Peninsula in the
Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. Cartagena has been the capital of the
Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the Mediterranean since the arrival of the
Spanish Bourbons in the eighteenth century. As far back as the sixteenth century it was one of the most important naval ports in
Spain, together with
Ferrol in the North.
It is a walled town and has a fine harbour defended by forts. In the time of Philip II of Spain, it was a major naval seaport of Spain. It is still an important naval seaport, the main military haven of Spain, and there is a big naval shipyard.
Cartagena had a population of 211,286 in 2007, making it the second largest city in the Region, the 6th among the non-province capitals of Spain, and the 24th overall.
The city of Cartagena is located in Spain, specifically in the southeast of Spain, in the Region of Murcia. Cartagena constitutes a great plane inclined with limited direction NW-SE at the north and the northwest by pre-coastal mountain ranges (Carrascoy, El Puerto, Los Villares, Columbares and Escalona), and at the south and southwest by coastal mountain ranges (El Algarrobo, La Muela, Pelayo, Gorda, La Fausilla y Minera, with its last spurs in Cabo de Palos). The dominant materials in the composition of the land are sedimentary, like limestone, and metamorphic, like slate, marble, etc.
