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Benigembla ()〔Spanish exonym ''Benichembla'' ()〕 located in the Pop Valley within the district of Marina Alta in eastern Spain. The town is 314 m above sea level. It is only 50 km away from Benidorm, 88 km from Alicante, 105 km from Valencia, and 23 km from Dénia. Just 7.5 km (about 5 miles) from the town, in the direction of La Vall d'Ebo in an ancient Morisco site, ''Pla de Petracos'', there are paintings over 8000 years old and UNESCO has designated it a protected world site of cultural interest. The town of Benigembla is also of moorish origin, like most towns in the Pop Valley. In 1609 more than 14,000 Moors of the Pop Valley that resisted the decree of expulsion, and they gathered in the mountain of ''El Cavall Verd'' or ''el Pop''. At the end, the moors gave up because they were running out of food, water, and basic supplies. After giving up, most of the moors were expelled after suffering high casualties. After the decree of expulsion of the Moors from the year 1609, the village was repopulated mostly of majorcan and western Catalan people. The village still retains many traditions and customs of these settlers, and also the language spoken by the villagers. At the summit of "El Cavall Verd" also known as "La Muntanya del Pop", there are still some remains of an ancient castle called ´´El Castell de Pop´´. ´´El Castell de Pop´´ was owned by Al-Azraq, then by Pere d'Altafulla. Since 1329 was owned by Vidal de Vilanova and his successors. During the final period it was handed to ´´Jaume I el conqueridor´´ by the Jovada pact by Al-Azraq. Later, Peter the Great ordered its destruction, and today there are very few traces left. ´´El Castell de Pop´´gives its name to this enchanted valley in the Marina Alta. ==Demography== In 1615 the town had a population of only 99 inhabitants, and it reached its peak in 1860 with almost 900 inhabitants. From the 1900s to 1960 the town lost 34% of its population, since most of the locals migrated to the U.S., France, Germany, and Algeria Today the village has approximately 606 inhabitants, according to the latest municipal census of the year 2011. About 45% percent of the population is foreign, mostly British, these newcomers which started to settle in the 1980s and in the year 2009 they already represented 36% of the population. But there are also Germans and North Americans in town. The district of Vernissa Park is largely English speaking, since most of the people that settled in the urbanisation are British. It is a very flat town surrounded by mountains, which one can find very enjoyable and relaxing. The main language spoken by its local inhabitants is the Catalan language, also known locally as Valencian, which the majority of the population speak and use as their main language. After the decree of the expelling of the Moors in 1609, the town was populated mostly by inhabitants from Catalonia, and the Balearic Islands. Most of the traditions of these settlers are still carried out today, together with the Catalan language that they brought with them. In the table below we can see the different changes in Benigembla's population from the year 1857 to 2007, according to the National Institute of Statistics(1). The population has been increasing since 1998, since more of the newcomers started to register in the municipal town's census. Today the population of Benigembla is the most diverse population that has been since the existence of the town. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Benigembla」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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