Seville is approximately 2,200 years old. The passage of the various civilisations instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre. Although it has a strong mediaeval, renaissance and baroque heritage, the city was greatly influenced by Arabic culture.
Early periods
The mythological founder of the city is Hercules (Heracles), commonly identified with the Phoenician god Melqart, who the myth says sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlantic, and founded trading posts at the current sites of Cadiz and of Seville.
The city was known from Roman times as Hispalis. Important archaeological remains also exist in the nearby towns of Santiponce (Italica) and Carmona.
Existing Roman features in Seville include the remnants of an aqueduct, a temple inMármoles Street, the columns of La Alameda de Hércules, the remains exposed in situ in the underground Antiquarium of the Metropol Parasol building and the remains in the Patio de Banderas square near of the Seville Cathedral. The walls surrounding the city were originally built during the rule of Julius Caesar, but their current course and design were the result of Moorish reconstructions.
Following Roman rule, there were successive conquests of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica by the Vandals and the Visigoths during the 5th and 6th centuries.
Moorish era
Seville was taken by the Moors, Muslims from the North of Africa, during the conquest of Hispalis in 712. It was the capital for the kings of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Almoravid dynastyfirst and after the Almohad dynasty (from Arabic الموحدون al-Muwahhidun, i.e., "the monotheists" or "the Unitarians"), from the 8th to 13th centuries.
The Moorish urban influences continued and are present in contemporary Seville, for instance in the custom of
