What is El Puerto de Santa María?
[[File:Resbaladero.jpg|thumb|El Resbaladero, an [[18th century]] [[market]] in El Puerto de Santa Maria]] [[Image:Bandera de El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz).svg|thumb|150px|Flag]] [[Image:Coat of Arms of El Puerto de Santa María.svg|thumb|90px|coat of arms]] '''El Puerto de Santa María''' (commonly called '''El Puerto''') is a [[city]] on the [[shore|banks]] of the [[Guadalete River]] in the [[Provinces of Spain|province]] of [[Cadiz|Cádiz]], [[Spain]]. As of the 2005 [[census]], the city has 82,306 people. 50,000 of these people live in the [[urban]] center. The others live in the area around the urban center. The city of El Puerto de Santa Maria is {{convert|10|km|mi|abbr=on|lk=on|1}} northeast of Cadiz across the [[Bay of Cadiz]]. It is best known for its [[ferry]], [[El Vaporcito]], which has been used for 76 years. It takes [[passenger]]s to and from Cadiz to El Puerto. == History == In the [[Odyssey]] of [[Homer]], [[legend]] says that, after the [[Trojan War]], a [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[official]] named [[Menestheus]] escaped with his [[military|troops]] through the [[Straits of Gibraltar]]. They got to the Guadalete River and created a [[Harbour|port]]. They called the port ''Menestheus's port''. In 711, [[Arab]] ([[Moors]]) from the North of [[Africa]] [[invasion|invaded]] southern Spain. They changed the name to ''Alcante'' or ''Alcanatif''. The name means Port of [[Salt]]. They chose that name because of the old salt [[industry]] of [[Phoenicia]]ns and [[ancient Rome|Romans]]. In 1260, [[Alfonso X of Castile]] took the city from the Moors. He renamed it ''Santa María del Puerto''. [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] began his second [[voyage]] to the [[The Americas|New World]] from El Puerto. His [[pilot]], [[Juan de la Cosa]], created the first [[map]] of the world to include the [[coast]] of the New World in El Puerto in 1500. In the [[19th century|nineteenth century]], the city became the [[headquarters|General Headquarters]] for the [[France|French]] [[Army]] during the Spanish [[Peninsula