Ibiza (Catalan: Eivissa [jvis])[p] is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, 79 kilometres (49 miles) off the coast of the city of Valencia, in eastern Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. Its largest cities are Ibiza Town (Catalan: Vila d'Eivissa, or simply Vila), Santa Eulria des Riu, and Sant Antoni de Portmany. Its highest point, called Sa Talaiassa (or Sa Talaia), is 475 metres (1,558 feet) above sea level.
While it is one-sixth the size of nearby Majorca, Ibiza is over five times the size of Mykonos (Greece), or ten times the size of Manhattan Island. Ibiza has become famous for the association with nightlife and the electronic music that originated on the island. It is well known for its summer club scene which attracts very large numbers of tourists, though the island's government and the Spanish Tourist Office have controversially been working to promote more family-oriented tourism. Noted clubs include Space, Privilege, Amnesia, Ushuaa Ibiza Beach Hotel, Pacha, DC10, Eden, and Es Paradis.
Ibiza is the home of the noted "port" in Ibiza Town, a popular stop for many tourists and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1]
Ibiza and the nearby island of Formentera to its south are called the Pine Islands, or "Pityuses".
The official name of the island is in Catalan "Eivissa" (pronounced:[jvis]). Its name in Spanish is Ibiza (pronounced:[iia]). In British English, the name is usually pronounced in an approximation of the Spanish / /,[2] whereas in American English the pronunciation is more anglicized, or closer to Latin American Spanish (//,[3]//[4]).[5][6]
The origin of the name of the island is in the Phoenician language: Yibosim.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries the island was known to the Royal Navy as Ivica.
In 654 BC, Phoenician settlers founded a port in the Balearic Islands, as Ibossim (from the Phoenician "iboshim" dedicated to the god of the music and dance Bes).[7] It was later known to Romans as "Ebusus". The Greeks, who came to Ibiza during the time of the Phoenicians, were the first to call the two islands of Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityssae (Greek: , "pine-covered islands").[8] With the decline of Phoenicia after the Assyrian invasions, Ibiza came under the control of Carthage, also a former Phoenician colony. The island produced dye, salt, fish sauce (garum), and wool.
A shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Cuieram, and the rest of the Balearic Islands entered Eivissa's commercial orbit after 400 BC. Ibiza was a major trading post along the Mediterranean routes. Ibiza began establishing its own trading stations along the nearby Balearic island of Majorca, such as Na Guardis, where numerous Balearic mercenaries hired on, no doubt as slingers,[9] to fight for Carthage.
During the Second Punic War, the island was assaulted by the two Scipio brothers in 209 BC, but remained loyal to Carthage. With the Carthaginian military failing on the Iberian mainland, Ibiza was last used by the fleeing Carthaginian General Mago to gather supplies and men before sailing to Minorca and then to Liguria. Ibiza negotiated a favorable treaty with the Romans, which spared Ibiza from further destruction and allowed it to continue its Carthaginian-Punic institutions well into the Empire days, when it became an official Roman municipality. For this reason, Ibiza today contains excellent examples of late Carthaginian-Punic civilization. During the Roman Empire, the island became a quiet imperial outpost, removed from the important trading routes of the time.[citation needed]
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Ibiza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia