THE STORY BEHIND A PLACE NAME
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Thought to have been founded as a port by the Phoenicians sometime around 1100BC, Cadiz is often regarded as the most ancient inhabited city still standing in the West. Some archaeologists believe it is older than this, although no evidence discovered on the site seems to verify this.
Believed by some historians to be the location of the most mysterious aspect of Andalucía's Iberian past, the civilisation of Tartessus, Cadiz is still encased in its late eighteenth-century defensive walls.
German archaeologist Adolf Schulten, who devoted many years to finding Tartessus, went as far as to say that Cadiz could also be the location of the equally elusive city of Atlantis.
The Phoenicians named the port Gadir, sometimes spelt Agadir, meaning wall or stronghold, and all subsequent names appear to have derived from this name.
Used by the Carthaginians as a military base, it prospered under the Romans and acquired a reputation for its erotic dancing girls, leading some academics to claim that flamenco dance originated in Cadiz.
The Roman's changed the name to Gádés, and named its colony, Augusta Urbs lulia Gaditana (August city of Julia of Cadiz).
One of the city's notable features during antiquity was a temple dedicated to the Phoenician god Melqart, who was identified with the Greek Heracles and the Roman Hercules, and eventually became interchangeable. According to ancient Greek texts, this temple was still standing in the 1st century, leading historians to believe that the columns of this temple were the origin of the myth of the 'pillars of Hercules'.
Cadiz was a place of little significance under the rule of the Arabs, who adjusted the name to Qádis, which is from where its current name derives, although this is often shortened to Cai in Andalusian dialect.
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