Elche

Part of the municipality is coastal yet the city proper is roughly 15 km (9 mi) away from the Mediterranean Sea. Elche is the centre of the footwear industry in Spain. The main airport of the province of Alicante (Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport) is located inside Elche's municipality, and it serves both Elche and Alicante, being the fifth-busiest airport in Spain. Together with Alicante and other municipalities, Elche forms a conurbation of around 0.8 million inhabitants. The city is noted for its urban Palm Grove, designated as World Heritage Site. Located within the current municipal limits 3 km from the current city's location downstream of the Vinalopó, the neighbouring site of La Alcudia/Ilici achieved the consolidation of its urban structure already by the early 5th century BCE, eventually becoming the centre of power of a local Phocaean-Iberian amphictyony in the Lower Vinapoló and Segura region. It resurfaced as a colonia under Roman rule, connected to maritime transport via the Portus Ilicitanus, and became a bishopric in late antiquity.