Mar Menor

Los Alcázares (Spanish: [los alˈkaθaɾes]) is a municipality and a coastal spa town and former fishing village on the western side of the Mar Menor in the autonomous community and province of Murcia, southeastern Spain. The Mar Menor (little sea) belongs to three other municipalities: San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar and Cartagena and is Europe's largest saltwater lagoon. Connected to the adjacent Mediterranean sea by several channels, the Mar Menor has a surface area of almost 20 km2 and the fact that it is typically 2-4 degrees warmer than the Mediterranean, makes it a very popular destination for sailing, windsurfing, kiteboarding and other water sports enthusiasts. Los Alcazares has a resident population (2018) of 15,674 which rises to over 100,000 during the peak tourist summer holiday season. On 13 October 1983, the town was granted municipal autonomy, in respect of which it holds an annual week-long celebration featuring live music, shows, windsurfing competitions and firework displays. Besides the annual celebration of municipal autonomy, like many Spanish towns and cities, Los Alcazares also plays host to numerous fiestas and festivals throughout the year, including a large medieval market at the end of every March, and during the last two weeks in August, 'La Huerta' an international folklore festival and feast in celebration of the region's status as the market garden of Spain. Los Alcazares was used as a location for the 2008 movie of Ernest Hemingway's posthumous novel The Garden of Eden, starring Jack Huston, Richard E. Grant and Mena Suvari. A partly disused historic military air base at the southern end of the town was also used for location filming for the 2010 war movie, Green Zone featuring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear and Jason Isaacs.

El Carmolí is an area in Los Urrutias, Cartagena municipality, in the Campo de Cartagena comarca, Region of Murcia, southeastern Spain. It used to be the site of a military air base, located near a homonymous hill in the flat Mar Menor area. One noteworthy spot in the territory is a hill which name is also El Carmolí and is an ancient volcano that started erupting seven million years ago.The El Carmolí zone is part of a protected area called Parque Natural de Espacios Abiertos e Islas del Mar Menor.

San Pedro del Pinatar is a small town and municipality in the Region of Murcia, southeastern Spain. The municipality is situated at the northern end of Murcia's Mediterranean coastline, the Costa Cálida, and borders the province of Alicante. It has an area of almost 22 km2, and a population of 25,167 as of 2018.

Pilar de la Horadada (Spanish pronunciation: [piˈlaɾ ðe la oɾaˈðaða]) is a town and district in the Province of Alicante, in the southeast of Spain. Located 66 km south of Alicante, the city is the southernmost of the Valencian Community, only 1 km north of the regional border (with the Province of Murcia). The town and its neighbouring villages (Pinar de Campoverde and Torre de la Horadada) are home to thousands of British, German and northern European expatriates. Region de Murcia Airport RMU (Corvera, Murcia) is within close proximity.

Torre-Pacheco (Spanish pronunciation: [torepaˈtʃeko]) is a municipality in the autonomous community of Murcia in southeastern Spain. It covers an area of 189.4 km² and its population in 2019 was 35,676. The only high ground in the municipality is Cabezo Gordo hill, the location of the protected Sima de las Palomas archeological site. The town has one secondary education institution, the I.E.S. Gerardo Molina. The municipality is known for its golf courses, and its windmills are known region wide.

El Algar is a district of the Spanish municipality Cartagena. It is located in the east of Cartagena and has an area of 26.659 km2. It shares borders with Lentiscar at its north, San Félix at its east, La Unión municipality at its south east, El Beal at its south-west and a coastal salty lagoon named Mar Menor at its north-west. In 2019, 7,961 people were registered as inhabitants of the district.

Torre de la Horadada is a Spanish town located on the Mediterranean Sea with an estimated population of 2.676 inhabitants and comes under the jurisdiction of Pilar de la Horadada, which in turn has a total population of 22.967 according to the National Statistics Institute. Both of these towns are located in the most southern point of the Alicante province in the southeast of Spain and therefore shares a border with the province of Murcia. The name of the town has its origin in two factors: the first, the 16th century watchtower; and the second, the site where the tower is found: the point of Horadada (el horadada) which comes from the Spanish word for "bore through" as it is situated on rocks made up of small caves developed by the water boring the rock.

Los Nietos, Spain is a small fishing village with its own individual marina on the Mar Menor, which began as a very small fishing settlement and was later urbanised to allow more holiday homes by the Mar Menor. It is now a busy community with many visitors, especially in the summer, with some events at other times. Many foreigners, mainly British, live there. The village is at the eastern terminus of the Cartagena-Los Nietos commuter railway line. The Mar Menor has a 73 km coastline perimeter with numerous beaches with clear, shallow water (maximum depth 7m). The Mar Menor lagoon covers an area of 170km2 – making it the largest Saltwater lake in Europe. The average annual temperature is 17 °C, winters are mild, with average temperatures not falling much below 10 °C. La Manga del Mar Menor itself is a narrow strip of land between two seas, the Mediterranean and Mar Menor, measuring up to 300m in breadth & 21 km in length. It has over 40 km of sandy beaches, a casino, hotels, and is close to the airport, Murcia central, and to one of the oldest cities in Spain, Cartagena. Los Alcazares is an old fishing village of 20 km2 with 7 km of beaches from Los Narejos to Punta Brava. There is good transport to Los Alcazares and other nearby places. Santiago de la Ribera appeared in 1888 around a hermitage named after the apostle Santiago, and founded by Friar Jose Maria Barnuevo Rodrigo de Villamayor, who was a knight of the Military Order of Santiago – for this reason the town was named Santiago de la Ribera. Cabo de Palos is a bay on the Mediterranean side of La Manga just before the strip itself. The village has been built on a volcanic backbone of the Murcian coast where fishing has remained one of the livelihoods of the area although it has been modernized. Playa Honda, Mar de Cristal, Islas Menores, Los Nietos, Los Urrutias and Punta Brava are small hamlets and villages following the coastline.

Pinar de Campoverde (Pine Forest in/of the Green Field literally) is a small village located at the foot of the Sierra de Escalona mountain range, nine kilometres from Pilar de la Horadada borough council, in the province of Alicante, Spain. The town has around 3,000 inhabitants and is ten kilometres from the Mediterranean coastline.

Jerónimo y Avileses is a village and a district in Murcia, Spain. It is part of the municipality of Murcia and is located in the south-east of the municipality. It has an area of 39.437 km2 and had a population of 1,701 in 2020.

Llano del Beal (also known as El Llano del Beal or El Llano) is a town in the municipality of Cartagena in the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia in Spain.

La Unión is situated in the Region of Murcia in the southeast of Spain. It has an area of 24.6 km², and had a population of 19,907 on 1 January 2018. It has an elevation of 86 m. Its average annual temperature is 17 °C. It has balmy winters. The sun shines 320 days per year. La Unión is situated in one of the sunniest areas in Europe; this kind of climate makes possible the many leisure activities, popular fiestas, sports, and cultural activities that are held in the town. The town is linked by a regular train to Cartagena which allows views of the past industrial heritage of the area (lead, alum and silver mining) and the more modern occupations of agriculture and tourism. La Unión lies within the built-up area of Cartagena and is surrounded on all landward sides by the City of Cartagena. The rich mines of La Union provided most of the silver and lead needed by the Late Roman Republic, as it was studied by the archaeologist Eulalia Sintas Martínez.