The Balearic Islands' archipelago is situated
south-east of Europe, in the central part of the western Mediterranean
basin. Palma, the capital of the Balearics, is in Majorca, the largest
of the Balearic islands which lies on longitude 3º E and latitude
39º N.
The present position of the city of Palma is believed to have been
originally occupied by a talayotic settlement closely associated
with the sea. Later invaded by the Romans and then by the Arabs
who named it Madina Mayurqa, the city conserves evidence of those
periods in monuments such as the Almudaina Palace and the Arab baths.
Since then the growth of tourism in the Balearics has been spectacular:
the 500,000 visitors to the island in 1960 rose to over 6,739,700
in 1997, with 16,562,090 passengers travelling through Palma Airport
in 1997 and 143,000 by sea. This put the Balearic Islands into the
top position in Spain with respect to the gross domestic product
per inhabitant and the only community in Spain to exceed the European
Union average.
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