The World's Dance Music Capital — the Balearic island where the world's greatest DJs play superclubs that hold 10,000 people through white Mediterranean nights, the UNESCO-listed old fortified town of Dalt Vila is pure medieval magic, and the northern coves are hidden white-sand bays the package tourists never find
Ibiza (Eivissa in Catalan) is the third-largest of Spain's Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean — simultaneously a UNESCO World Heritage medieval fortified town, one of the most ecologically diverse Mediterranean islands, and the undisputed global capital of electronic dance music. The Dalt Vila (Upper Town) — a UNESCO-listed fortified hilltop city with 16th-century Renaissance walls, a Gothic cathedral, and cobblestone lanes lined with whitewashed houses — is one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in the western Mediterranean. The international clubbing scene (Pacha, Amne…
Ibiza was settled by the Phoenicians in 654 BCE (they called it 'Ibossim' — Island of Bes, their deity of dance and fertility) — remarkably appropriate given the island's current incarnation. The Phoenicians established a major necropolis at Puig des Molins (UNESCO World Heritage, 3,000+ tombs) that remained in use for 1,000 years through Carthaginian, Roman, and Byzantine periods. The island was conquered by the Moors in 902 CE and held for over 300 years before the Crown of Aragon took it in 1235. The 16th-century Renaissance fortifications (added 1554–1585 by Italian engineers on Spanish o…