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PHOTODRONE TECH SL / CERRO DEL VILLAR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT

WESTERN HORIZONS. Tucked between the modern Spanish city of Málaga and its nearby airport, the ancient Phoenician site of Cerro del Villar sits alongside the mouth of the Guadalhorce River. Today, the river is confined to a canal (visible at left) that splits as it nears the coast, passing the silt-rich area of agricultural land on which the ancient site is located. But during its heyday from the eighth to sixth centuries BCE, the immediate area around this prosperous Phoenician trading colony was open delta with several small, low-lying islets, on one of which the town was built.