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Maspalomas
Region
Aerial view of Faro de Maspalomas
Maspalomas Location in Canary Islands
Coordinates:27°46′N15°35′W / 27.767°N 15.583°W /27.767; -15.583
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Canary Islands
Province	Las Palmas
Municipality	San Bartolomé de Tirajana
Population  (2013)[1]
• Total	36,065
Postal code	35100

Maspalomas (Spanish:[maspaˈlomas]) is a tourist resort in the south of the island ofGran Canaria,Canary Islands, stretching fromBahía Feliz in the east toMeloneras in the west, including theresort towns ofSan Agustín,Playa del Inglés andSan Fernando. Maspalomas constitutes the southernmost part of the municipality ofSan Bartolomé de Tirajana, and of the island.

Before the era of tourism,Maspalomas was the name of a hamlet in what today isSan Fernando de Maspalomas. Its name may derive from that of Rodrigo Mas de Palomar, a settler and soldier fromMajorca, or from Francisco Palomar, aGenoese friend ofAlonso Fernandez de Lugo who purchased 87Guanche slaves fromGüímar and settled in the area.^[2]

Present-day Maspalomas is the result of an ambitious development project, organized in the form of an International Ideas Contest (opened to any member of theInternational Union of Architects), held in 1961 under the auspice of Alejandro del Castillo, owner and promoter of most of the space under construction. The contest was won by the French officeSETAP (including the urbanist Guy Lagneau and the economist Michel Weill) and covered the 1,060 hectares (2,600 acres) and 19 kilometres (12 mi) of coast that constitute the core area ofMaspalomas - Costa Canaria. The contest paved the way for a particular way of understanding "touristic" urbanism that served as a model for later tourist development in other Canary Islands.^{[citation needed]}

Unlike the resort-like development model later extended to other locations in the Canary Islands and theCaribbean, Maspalomas has a personality of its own, as it evolved into a fully equipped town much closer to the "tourist" concept of destinations likePalm Springs, California orPalm Beach, Florida. It has a variety of infrastructure and public institutions rarely seen in other tourist areas, including private clinics and two hospitals, local and foreign schooling institutions (Spanish, English and Swedish schools), shopping and convention centres, two casinos, golf courses, sports centres, theme parks and a Summer University (in collaboration with theuniversity of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, mainly focused on tourism-related activities).^{[citation needed]}

It has a wide range of accommodation on offer, although the urbanism concept speaks of an horizontal expansion (bungalows) rather than high rises. Much appreciated as a winter destination for foreign tourists, mostly from north-European countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, etc.), it remains the largest tourist destination in the Canary Islands and a worldwide-known destination forLGBT tourism.^{[citation needed]}

The development of luxury hotels along the coast between Maspalomas and neighbouring Meloneras has resulted in some notable architectural developments. The Lopesan Villa del Conde and the Lopesan Costa Meloneras Hotels have both been designed in aCanarian Spanish Colonial Revival style, partly derived fromde la Torre'sHotel Santa Catalina (1890) in Las Palmas. For the Villa del Conde hotel, opened in 2005, the architect created a replica of the nearby town ofAgüimes (the home town ofEustasio López González [es], founder of the Lopesan Hotel Group), including a distinctive replica of the large, domedChurch of San Sebastián [es], which serves as the hotel reception.^[3]

Maspalomas serves as the base for Gran Canaria's only English language newspaper,^[4] which serves a print readership in excess of 20,000 every month and reaches up to another 30,000 readers on-line.

In September 2012, theWorld Tourism Organization organized itsWorld Tourism Day in Maspalomas, as a form of commemoration of its 50 years of existence.^{[citation needed]}

Maspalomas is agay-friendly destination with many establishments catering for theLGBT community and a popular gay beach by the sand dunes. Particularly centred aroundPlaya del Inglés.

The seafront at Punta de Maspalomas, the southernmost point of the resort, is dominated by a 56-metre-high (184 ft)lighthouse,El Faro de Maspalomas. Completed in 1890, it was built to guide ships travelling between Europe and the Americas.^[5]

The lighthouse overlooks the popular 12 kilometres (7.5 mi)-long Maspalomas beach.^[6] To the east of the lighthouse, theMaspalomas Dunes stretch inland all the way toPlaya del Inglés. During the 1960s and 70s, the construction of hotels and the tourist resort began to encroach on the dunes, damaging the natural habitat, and in 1994 a 4 km² (1.5 sq mi) area of dunes was declared a nature reserve to protect native wildlife. El Charco is a naturallagoon at the edge of the dunes which attracts many species of birds,eels andguppies.^[7]

In the north of MaspalomasSan Fernando andEl Tablero were built for people working in the tourist industry. In betweenSonnenland was constructed, on a crest, to accommodateexpats.^{[citation needed]}

An array of largesatellite dishes visible on a hill from Meloneras isMaspalomas Station, anESAground station that supported severalNASA space missions, including theMercury Program, theGemini Program, theApollo Moon landings, andSkylab.^[8]

Maspalomas has ahot desert climate with influences of atropical climate, as the average temperature in all months of the year is above 18 °C (64 °F).^[9] Winters are very mild to warm and dry, with night temperatures rarely drop below 13 °C (55 °F) while summers are hot and very dry. It is one of the regions with the highest average annual temperatures inSpain, due to its very southern location and the influence of the Atlantic Ocean.^[10]

Maspalomas is served by theFaro de Maspalomasbus station run by theGran Canaria Transport Authority [es], which is located near the lighthouse at the end of Avenida Cristobal Colon. Bus services operated byGlobal Transport [es] provide connections to other tourist resorts and towns in the south of the island, including Playa del Inglés andMogán, as well as to towns along the east coast and to the island capital,Las Palmas.^[13]

Plans have existed for several years to construct a rail link, calledTren de Gran Canaria, connecting Maspalomas toGran Canaria Airport andLas Palmas. A terminus station is planned at Meloneras underneath Av. Cristóbal Colón, near the lighthouse. The scheme, estimated to cost €1,500 million, has not been confirmed due to funding problems.^[14][15]

• 
  Bird sanctuaryLa Charca
• 
  Maspalomas Dunes
• 
  The beach ofPlaya del Inglés
• 
  Hotels inSan Agustín
• 
  Maspalomas Lighthouse
• 
  Lopesan Baobab Resort
• 
  Sand dunes at Maspalomas
• 
  Sand dunes at Maspalomas

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Maspalomas (category)

• (in Spanish)El nombre de Maspalomas (etymological study)
• Town Hall
• Maspalomas Gran Canaria
• Panoramic Virtual Tours of Maspalomas

• Populated places in Gran Canaria
• Tourism in Spain

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