Málaga is a city and a municipality of Spain, capital of the homonymous province and located in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 569,009 inhabitants (2016), Malaga is the sixth most populated city of Spain, the second of Andalusia and the number forty-six of the European Union, as well as the largest of which are not autonomic capitals.

In addition, it is the most densely populated urban area of ​​the conurbation formed by a set of localities that lie along the 160 km of the Costa del Sol. It is the center of a metropolitan area, which surpasses its municipal limits, encompassing another 12 municipalities with 987 813 registered inhabitants. It is estimated, however, that Malaga is the fifth metropolitan area of ​​Spain, where more than 1 million people live.

It is located at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea and in the south of the Iberian peninsula, about 100 km east of the Strait of Gibraltar. Its municipality occupies an area of 398,25 km ² that extend on the Montes de Málaga and the Valley of the Guadalhorce. The city is located in the center of a bay surrounded by mountains. Two rivers, the Guadalmedina and the Guadalhorce, cross the city and flow into the Mediterranean.

Founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC. , which makes it one of the oldest cities in Europe, Malaga was one of the first federated municipalities and after that had the Latin laws of the Roman Empire, and it was a prosperous Andalusian medina. Malaga was incorporated into the Crown of Castile in 1487. During the nineteenth century the city underwent a remarkable industrial and revolutionary activity that made it the first industrial city in Spain. It was the scene of one of the bloodiest episodes of the Spanish Civil War and protagonist of the explosion of the tourist boom of the 1960s and 1970s, Malaga is nowadays a notable economic and cultural center and an important communication node at the Mediterranean coast.