Axarquía (Spanish pronunciation:[axaɾˈki.a]) is a comarca of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is the wedge-shaped area east of Málaga. Its name is traced back to Arabicالشرقية (aš-Šarqiyya, meaning "the eastern [region]"). It extends along the coast and inland. Its coastal towns make up the Costa del Sol Oriental - one of the sunniest places in mainland Spain with the average of 320 sunny days a year.[2] The natives of the region are called axárquicos.
The comarca is composed of 31 municipalities, of which the capital is Vélez-Málaga. The Vélez, Algarrobo and Torrox rivers all run through the region. Its highest mountain is La Maroma, highest point of the Sierra de Tejeda, Penibaetic System.[3]
The Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy defines the word "jarquía" (xarquía in old Castilian) as "district or territory located east of a great city and dependent on it" and says that it proceeds from Arabic شرقية Šarqiyya, meaning "eastern part" or " eastern." It coincides with the region of Axarquia which lies in the east of Málaga. The Royal Academy, in its spelling of the Spanish Language, 1999 edition, explains that, in old Castilian, consonant fricative phoneme [[Voiceless velar fricative|⟨x⟩]] represented the palatal [ʃ] as in English sh sound, found in words like Axarquía, Don Quixote, Mexico, Texas etc.
Municipalities
The Axarquía comarca consists of the following municipalities:
^Fernando Almeida García & Damián López Cano, La Costa del Sol Oriental: un conflicto territorial entre el turismo, la agricultura y la urbanización metropolitana. Baética: Estudios de arte, geografía e historia, ISSN 0212-5099, Nº 25, 2003, pg. 67-80
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