The Mediterranean by Grant Allen

A nearly perfect climate -- Continuous existence of thirty centuries -- Granada and the world-renowned Alhambra -- Systems of irrigation -- Vineyards the chief source of wealth -- Esparto grass -- The famous Cape de Gatt -- The highest peak of the Sierra Nevada -- Last view of Granada.

Malaga has been very differently described and appreciated. The Arab chroniclers who knew it in the palmy days of the Moorish domination considered it "a most beautiful city, densely peopled, large and most excellent. " Some rose to poetical rhapsody in describing it; they praised it as "the central jewel of a necklace, a land of paradise, the pole star, the diadem of the moon, the forehead of a bewitching beauty unveiled. " A Spanish poet was not less eloquent, and sang of Malaga as "the enchantress, the home of eternal spring, bathed by the soft sea, nestling amidst flowers. " Ford, on the other hand, that prince of guide-book makers, who knew the Spain of his day intimately from end to end, rather despised Malaga. He thought it a fine but purely commercial city, having "few attractions beyond climate, almonds and raisins, and sweet wine. " Malaga has made great strides nevertheless in the fifty-odd years since Ford so wrote of it.