Cadiz

kad'iz, an important seaport of Spain. It is situated on a narrow tongue of land at the southwestern extremity of Spain, midway between Gibraltar and Portugal. The city is reputed to be handsomely built. The houses are of the flat-topped, Moorish style. The harbor, one of the finest in the world, is well protected by forts. It is the chief naval station of Spain and commercially the center of its colonial trade. The city is well provided with theaters and cathedrals, and has a bull ring capable of seating 12,000 spectators. Cadiz was a flourishing Phoenician colony and was a city of importance under the Romans. At one time Cadiz, or Gades, as it was called, was the chief commercial city of the West. It absorbed the commercial business once belonging to Carthage, and was the chief port on the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea excepted. E. A. Freeman says, "Cadiz has kept its name and its unbroken position as a great city from an earlier time than any other city in Europe." The present population is about 70,000. See Spain