THE PALM GROVE OF ELCHE

With an estimated number of palms between 200 and 300,000, it is the largest palm grove in all of Europe, which has earned it a place on the Unesco World Heritage List in 2000, as a testimony to the cultural transmission of the East to the West and a vestige of an exceptional irrigation system, inherited from the culture of Al-Andalus. It includes more than 2,800 species of date palms, which live between 200 and 300 years, some reaching 30 meters in height. Although its origins go back a long way, as the Phoenicians are said to have introduced date palms as a means of subsistence during their sea crossings, its expansion came about as a result of the foundation by the Arabs of the new city of Elche, which was accompanied by an extensive irrigation network that still persists today. Seen from a distance, the palm grove may look like a forest, but it is in fact an agrarian plantation whose plots and groupings are called orchards. The survival of this system of oasis agriculture was also one of the aspects evaluated by Unesco. Today, its function is more landscape and cultural than agricultural. But it still produces white palm leaves, for Palm Sunday in Spain, and its date crops continue to supply the local market. There are several routes to take through the area, including the Palmeraie route through traditional palm gardens and the Filet de Fora Palm Park.