Cartagena
The city of Cartagena is located on five small hills known as: Monte de la Concepción, Cerro del Molinete, Monte de San José, Monte Sacro, and Cerro de Despeñaperros.
It is a port city open to the Mediterranean Sea through a wide bay. The port of Cartagena currently has two docks: one in Escombreras, where various industries are located, and the other in the city itself. Between them lies the nearest of our beaches, Cala Cortina, equipped with all necessary facilities.
The natural port of Cartagena is bordered by Escombreras Island (to the east) and La Torrosa hill (to the west). Its entrance is guarded by a series of castles and coastal batteries built in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The city is home to the Regional Assembly, the legislative body of the Autonomous Community.
In natural surroundings, you can visit its two protected areas: to the west, the beaches of Cabo Tiñoso, including El Portús beach, and to the east, the beaches located in the Calblanque Regional Park and Cala Reona.
La Manga del Mar Menor is a sandy formation, a type of barrier island, 22 km long and between 90 and 900 meters wide. This formation, through its communication channels with the Mediterranean—known as “golas”—creates the coastal lagoon of the Mar Menor, a wetland of international importance, covering 170 km² with a maximum depth of 8 meters. Its waters, due to their average annual temperature of 18ºC and calmness, make it an exceptional place for all kinds of water sports.
The islands of the Mar Menor—Sujeto, Barón, Ciervo, Redondela, and Perdiguera—form a protected landscape.
La Manga begins at Cabo de Palos, a geographical feature that has become a fishing and tourist village, notable for its lighthouse built in 1864.
The beauty and preservation of Cartagena’s seabeds have made it one of the top destinations for scuba diving in Spain. Highlights include the marine reserves of Cabo de Palos and Islas Hormigas, and the marine reserve of fishing interest in Cabo Tiñoso (to the west of the city), featuring large seagrass meadows and coral colonies that form habitats for numerous plant and animal species. You can also find remnants from other eras, from Roman shipwrecks to sunken ships from the Civil War.
The nearby Cabo Tiñoso area offers the wildest and most secluded aspect of Cartagena’s coastline, with beautiful coves such as Cala Cerrada, Cala Salitrona, Cala Boletes, and Cala Aguilar, among others. La Azohía beach combines a well-developed tourist infrastructure with a traditional fishing village. Between La Azohía and the nearby town of Mazarrón lies Isla Plana, another village dedicated to summer tourism.
Around the urban area, we find the Campo de Cartagena, the name given to the region stretching from the Mazarrón and Carrascoy mountain ranges to the shores of the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean Sea.
The need to grind products from the Campo de Cartagena and extract water from its subsoil, along with the presence of constant and strong winds, led to the appearance of animal-powered
