Almuñécar is an important setting in Laurie Lee's account of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, and referred to as "Castillo" to disguise people's identities.

Almuñécar's coat of arms, which shows the turbaned heads of three Barbary pirates floating in the sea, was granted to the town by King Carlos I in 1526 for its having destroyed a Berber raiding force.

The Phoenicians first established a colony in Almuñécar in about 800 BC and this developed for six hundred years into an important port and town with the name of Ex or Sexi and with a large fish salting and curing industry that was a major supplier of Greece and Rome.

An extensive collection of Phoenician grave goods and other artifacts is on display in the town museum located at the Castle of San Miguel and in the 'Cueva de Siete Palacios'.

The Romans came to southern Spain at the time of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage in 218 BC as part of their campaign to subdue the Phoenician settlements along the coast.

This industry required not only large quantities of fish and sea salt, produced in many places along the coast, but also a constant supply of fresh running water.

With the decline of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, Germanic peoples, including the Visigoths, crossed the Pyrenees mountain range into the Iberian peninsula.

The cross on Peñon del Santo, the rock at the old harbour entrance, marks the defeat of the Arabs, their surrender at Almuñécar, and the annexation to the Kingdom of Castille in 1489.

At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War it was where English poet and writer Laurie Lee was rescued by the Royal Navy in the summer of 1936.

The story featured in his book, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning The town's economy benefited from the raise of national and international tourism since the 1970s as well as neighbour Motril.

Monkfish (rape), red sea bream (besugo), squids (calamares), grouper (mero), croaker (corvina), and shellfish paella are typical examples of local seafood.

The most notable are mangos, avocados, loquats, and cherimoyas, but it is also easy to find papayas, guavas, lychees, kiwis, figs and even prickly pears, the fruit of the Opuntia ficus-indica cactus, which are used to make ice cream and jams sold in several local coffee shops.

Some typical dessert cakes still made locally include: By road: Almuñécar can be reached via the coastal highway A7, with connections from Almería to the East and from Malaga to the West.

Furthermore, there are several car rental companies offering both local and international brands, as well as pre-booked private transfer services from Malaga Airport.