Benalmádena is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of theautonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. The municipality is situated approximately 12 kilometers to the west of the city of Málaga, on the southern coast between Torremolinos and Fuengirola, in the heart of the Costa del Sol and Alhaurín de la Torre in the North. It forms part of the metropolitan area of Málaga and resides in the comarca of the Costa del Sol Occidental, the joint board the Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Costa del Sol Occidental and the judicial district of Torremolinos. It caters for a large number of tourists. The town is also home to Benalmádena Stupa, the largest stupa (a structure important in Buddhism) in the Western world, standing 33 meters tall.
It covers an area of just over 27 km2 that extends from the summits of the Sierra de Mijas to the sea, falling in some places as a cliff. The territory is crossed from east to west on Highway A-7, which connects with the provincial capital and other centers of the Mediterranean coast.
The municipality has three main urban areas:
- Benalmádena Pueblo, the original village, which lies about three kilometres inland at an elevation of approximately 200 m above mean sea level. Its core consists of a typical white-fronted Andalusian village, although including numerous recent buildings in modern architectural styles. The town of Benalmádena also has an archaeological museum with locally-derived artefacts dating back to the Bronze Age.
- Benalmádena Costa, an urban agglomeration on the coast. Here there are discos, hotels, beaches, shopping centers and an extensively-equipped marina.[6] Tourist attractionsinclude SeaLife aquarium and Selwo Marina, a theme park with dolphins, penguins and seals among other species. The Parque Paloma is a more recent addition to the attractions, a landscaped park containing a large lake and animals running wild.
- Arroyo de la Miel, originally a separate village, is in the interior between the other two areas. It has become the main residential area, and is also the most commercially active. Buildings are tightly packed and tend to be apartment blocks. It also has several attractions such as the Tivoli World amusement park, and a teleferico (cable car running to the summit of the 769-metre Calamorro mountain, which provides panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada,Gibraltar and on clear days, the Moroccan coastline. Arroyo de la Miel translates as “Stream of Honey” in English.
The climate is typically Mediterranean, with mild temperatures throughout the year, absence of frost in the cold months and an average of19 °C (66 °F).Its privileged climate and location in the southern coastal Europe are two important factors so that the tourism industry is the main economic sector of the municipality.