GRANADA SPAIN
Population:
250-350,000 depending on the source. Maybe the wild fluctuation is due to Granada being a student city with a large amount of people coming from outside to study. Climate:
In January there are lots of blue skies and it is warm when the sun is shining but it gets cold at night. There are occasional frosts. The best time to visit Granada is in the Spring and Autumn when the temperature is just perfect with warm sunny days. During July and August it can be very hot and some days the temperature reaches 40C. Granada has a dry heat which is much more bearable than the humid heat which you will find in Barcelona. There is very little rainfall although every few years there are spells when it rains very heavily. For average temperature and rainfall statistics click here.
People:
Spain is generally very monocultural in comparison to most of the other developed countries. During the years of Franco there was very little immigration and 95% of the population are white Catholics. For centuries Spain was host to Arabic culture and this has left many strong imprints both genetically and culturally. The "granadainos" don't have a particularly good reputation and they are renown for their "mala follar" which as far as I understand means cantankerousness or bad humour. There is some truth in this, and I would say that the granadinos are less friendly and lighthearted than the average Spaniard (but that still means that they are more friendly than the English).
Geography:
Granada is located just at the point where the Sierra Nevada mountains meet the fertile plain of the vega. Behind it are steep mountains and in front there is flat agricultural land. I suppose it was first inhabited and grew because it was easy to defend from behind and although it is dry in the summer there is always a supply of water coming from the mountain fuelled by melting snow, the rich soil in the Vega provided an ample food source. The altitude is 630 metres.
The Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada (known as the Sierra Nevada National Park in English) is located in Granada and Almería provinces in south-eastern Spain. It was declared a national park on 14 January 1999. It stretches from the Alpujarra to El Marquesado and the Lecrin Valley, covering a total area of 85,883 hectares,[1] making it the largest national park in Spain.