Las Palmas


Las Palmas, officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a city and capital of Gran Canaria island, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the capital, the most populous city in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands, and the ninth-largest city in Spain with a population of 383,308 in 2010. It is also the fifth-most populous urban area in Spain and ninth- or tenth-most populous metropolitan area in Spain.
Las Palmas is located in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria, about off the Moroccan coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Las Palmas experiences a hot desert climate, offset by the local cooler Canary Current, with warm temperatures throughout the year. It has an average annual temperature of. According to a study carried out by Thomas Whitmore, director of research on climatology at Syracuse University in the U.S., Las Palmas enjoys "the best climate in the world".
The city was founded in 1478, and considered the de facto capital of the Canary Islands until the seventeenth century. It is the home of the Canarian Ministry of Presidency, as well as half of the ministries and boards of the Canarian government, and the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.

History

The city was founded by Juan Rejón on 24 June 1478, with the name "Real de Las Palmas". Rejón was head of the invading Castilian army, which then engaged in war with the locals.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus anchored in the port of Las Palmas and spent some time on the island on his first trip to the Americas. He also stopped there on the way back to Spain. The museum in the area of the city is named after him.
In 1595, Francis Drake tried to plunder the town, leading to the Battle of Las Palmas. A Dutch raid under vice-admiral Pieter van der Does in 1599 was only slightly more successful; some of the town was destroyed, but the raiders were repelled.
Las Palmas' seaport, Puerto de la Luz, benefited greatly from the closure of the Suez Canal during the Suez Crisis. Many foreign workers migrated to the city at this time.
Las Palmas is a sister city of San Antonio, Texas, in the United States, which was founded in 1718 by about 25 Canary Islanders.

Administrative divisions

Las Palmas is divided into five administrative districts, which in turn are subdivided into districts, not necessarily consistent with the traditional neighborhoods.
NoDistrictPopulation
1Vegueta, Cono Sur y Tafira73,243
2Centro88,546
3La Isleta-Puerto-Canteras71,412
4Ciudad Alta101,684
5Tamaraceite-San Lorenzo39,191

Geography

The city has four main beaches: Las Canteras, Las Alcaravaneras, La Laja, and El Confital.
Las Palmas has a desert climate with warm dry summers and warm enough winters to classify it as a tropical climate. Its average annual temperature is – during the day and at night. In January, the coldest month, the temperature typically ranges from during the day, and around at night, with an average sea temperature at. In the warmest months – August and September – the temperature typically ranges from during the day, above at night, with the average sea temperature at. Large fluctuations in temperature are rare.
August 1990 was the warmest month on record, with the average maximum temperature of the month during the day being. The highest temperature ever recorded was, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was. The highest wind speed ever recorded was on 28 November 2005, measuring. Las Palmas city has never recorded any snow or sleet.
Annual average relative humidity is 66%, ranging from 64% in March to 69% in October. The amount of annual sunshine hours is above 2,800 per year, from around 190 in winter to around 300 in summer. It rains on average only 22 days a year, with total precipitation per year of only.
Climate data for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria-------------
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Average sea temperature °C 20.0
19.1
19.1
19.3
20.0
21.0
21.8
22.5
23.4
23.4
22.1
20.5
21
Mean daily daylight hours11.011.012.013.014.014.014.013.012.011.011.010.012.2
Average Ultraviolet index46891011111197547.9
Source #1: seatemperature.org-------------
Source #2: Weather Atlas-------------

Demographics

, nearly half of Gran Canaria's inhabitants live in Las Palmas, as well as 18.35% of the Canary Islands' total population. According to a study by the National Statistics Institute of Spain Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has a life expectancy of 80.9 years.
Throughout history, Las Palmas received waves of immigrants from mainland Spain and countries from every continent. The majority of the population is Spanish, although large North- and sub-Saharan African and Latin American communities exist, as well as important historical minorities such as Indians and Koreans and a growing Chinese population.
Ethnically, most autochthonous Canarians are descendants of a mixture of aboriginal people of the Canary Islands, the Spanish conquistadores and later European colonizers.
YearPopulationDensity
1991354,8873,529.46/km2
1996355,5633,536.18/km2
2002370,6493,686.22/km2
2004376,9533,748.92/km2
2007377,2033,751.40/km2
2008381,1233,790.38/km2
2010383,3083,812.11/km2

Education

Las Palmas is home to University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was founded in 1989.
The city also has a wide variety of state and public primary and secondary schools.
International schools include:
The Escuela Complementaria Japonesa de Las Palmas previously provided a weekend supplementary Japanese programme.

Culture

Las Palmas offers a variety of theater, cinema, opera, concerts, visual arts and dance performances. The city hosts the Canary Islands Music Festival, the Theatre and Dance and the International Film Festival. The main City Festival, celebrating the foundation of the "City Fiestas de San Juan" is held in June. The Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is known not only in Spain but also worldwide, and is one of the main attractions for tourists. The city center of Las Palmas, specifically the Vegueta and Triana neighbourhoods, are included in the tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Museums, theatres and exhibition halls

.
The city has a wide network of libraries. Along with the 11 municipal libraries, there are three specialized centres:
A library is situated in the first floor of Woermann Tower.

Cultural events

Architecture

Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Christian churches and temples : Roman Catholic Diocese of Canarias, Spanish Evangelical Church, Union of Evangelical Baptists of Spain, Assemblies of God. There are also Muslim mosques.

Transportation

Roads and highways

Urban road infrastructure is overburdened on workdays and in certain areas; the city street plan is not at all rectilinear, and may be confusing even to experienced drivers. However, there are no toll roads; entrances, exits, main streets and important zones are all well-signposted.
Las Palmas, being the centre of the Las Palmas metropolitan area, is the hub for the island's motorway network. The city is linked with three highways: the GC-1 to the south, the GC-2 to the west and GC-3 to the center of the island.
The GC-1 links the capital with Puerto de Mogán in the south. It is the fastest route from the top of the island to the bottom and vice versa with a speed limit of. It is approximately in length and runs along the eastern and the southern coasts, and is also the second longest superhighway in the Canary Islands. The road provides easy access from the Airport to the major cities and resorts, which include Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés. The increase in tourism over the years has necessitated the route's upgrading and widening to cope with traffic growth. The GC-1 begins south of the downtown area of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the highway runs within the beach of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and south intersects with the GC-2 and later runs with a few clover leaf interchanges and later forms a junction with GC-5 and south, the GC-31.
The GC-2 North Highway connects Las Palmas with the small northern port and village of Agaete. The eastern portion – about in length – is a superhighway with interchange numbers, the rest of the highway is a two-laned; the western part is also only two-laned and has exit numbers. The highway begins by the beach area of the island, and runs through the downtown area, linking with the GC31 at a roundabout interchange. The freeway runs within the beaches and the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean for the half part but at around the 20th km, it becomes a highway after the unidirectional parclo interchanges and runs within the coastline, it later has several interchanges and several towns as it passes to the northwest and finally, it ends in Agaete.

Airport

Las Palmas is served by Gran Canaria Airport, also called Las Palmas Airport.
The airport is located in the eastern part of the island, about from Las Palmas city centre. In 2008, it handled 10,212,106 passengers and of cargo, and is the fourth busiest in Spain. It is also the only airport on the islands with two runways, thus can accommodate up to 53 landings and take-offs per hour. The lengthy runways made the airport an alternative landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle. This airport is also a base for Binter Canarias and Navegacion y Servicios Aéreos Canarios, airlines which operate regional inter-island flights within the Canary Islands.
An airbase of the Spanish Air Force is located to the east of the runways. Beyond several hangars opposite the passenger terminal, the Gando Air Base contains ten shelters situated on the southern end of the eastern runway.

Seaport

, also known as Puerto de la Luz, is a main port for fishing, commercial, passenger and sports in the northwest of the city. It has been the traditional base for scale and supplying ships on their way through the Middle Atlantic for five centuries. The Port of Las Palmas is not only the first port of the Canary Islands, it is one of the main ports of Spain and the first of the geographical area of West Africa. As the leading port in the mid-Atlantic, it serves as the crossroads between Europe, Africa and America. In 2007, the port received some 11,262 ships; it welcomed a total of 907,782 cruise passengers, a 16.26% increase on 2006. In terms of annual TEU, the port of Las Palmas ranks as the 5th in Spain, and is among the first 15 ports of Europe.
The Port of Las Palmas is the first Mid-Atlantic fishing base, with an annual traffic of more than 4,500 stopovers and with some 400,000 tons of frozen fish processed. Despite experiencing some decline in recent years, it retains its dominance in the fishing industry over other ports in the Canary Islands. The port provides of cold storage facilities. At the foot of pier, special refrigerated containers and preparation rooms for frozen products can carry out the entire chain of post-processing and storage of fish, from refrigeration and distribution, to manufacture and supply of industrial ice. The port's EU-approved border inspection post is responsible for inspecting all types of imports and exports between the European Economic Union and its trading partners.

Bus

Las Palmas boasts a high quality bus system, provided by Guaguas Municipales. Municipal Bus Lines offers 40 urban transport routes, covering both the bottom and the top of the city. The main lines are the 1, 2, 17, 25, 12 and 30. In addition, two circular lines and B.
The most important bus lines have frequencies of between 3 and 15 minutes during the day and between 10 and 40 minutes at night; most lines have service throughout the night. The bright yellow buses are known simply as 'guaguas'. The unique tariff, paid directly to the driver, is 1.30 euro. A 10-ride ticket is available for €7.50 at official shops in the city. The Tarjeta Insular which offered a 20% discount on both municipal buses and Global buses was discontinued on 1 January 2011.
Global, inter-hire company, has 119 lines, many to or from the capital. This company was formed in 2000, resulting from the merger of the previous Salcai and interurban lines Utinsa.
There is also the Guagua Turística, which covers the most interesting sites of the city with a guide in several languages.

Rail

There is currently no rail transport system on Gran Canaria. Between 1893 and 1944 steam tram ran between Las Palmas and Puerto de La Luz. The line was electrified in 1910, although the line reverted to steam traction in 1944, when trams were hauled by a steam locomotive known as La Pepa. A reproduction of this locomotive is now on display in the in Las Palmas. In the early 1970s an experimental elevated railway line operated through Las Palmas. Called the Tren Vertebrado, it was designed by Basque engineer Alejandro Goicoechea and consisted of an unusual low-profile train running on elevated concrete tracks through the city. The project was unsuccessful and was dismantled in 1974.
In the early 21st century, plans were put forward by the Gran Canaria Cabildo to develop a rapid transit railway line on Gran Canaria. If built, the Tren de Gran Canaria line would run along the eastern coast and connect Las Palmas with the airport and Maspalomas in the south. In 2004 the Spanish Ministry of Development put a contract out to competitive tender for a feasibility study on a 50 km railway line from Las Palmas to Maspalomas. This railway project is currently abandoned due to funding difficulties.
Another project is the Tramway Palmas, which would cover the same journey as the bus line 1, with an average frequency of 5 minutes and a journey time of 35 minutes.

Sports

Las Palmas is home to three major professional sports teams. These are:
Las Palmas was one of the arenas of 2014 FIBA World Championship for Group D, consisting,,,, and. Matches were played in the new arena – Gran Canaria Arena with a capacity of about 10,000.
Many outdoor sports are practised in city and neighbourhood, for example: surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, swimming, diving, skydiving, paragliding, running, cycling, rowing, tennis and golf. Real Club De Golf De Las Palmas, inaugurated on 17 December 1891, is the oldest golf club in Spain.

Health system

The two general hospitals of Gran Canaria are in Las Palmas. While Hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Doctor Negrín is geared to health care in the north and west of the island, Hospital Universitario Insular de Gran Canaria is geared to health care in the south and east of the island. There are also smaller private hospitals and clinics.

Twin towns – sister cities

Las Palmas is twinned with:
In addition, the municipality has approved in plenary willingness twinning with the following cities, if they are not well formalized these twinning: