Los Nietos,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

is a small fishing village with its own individual

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

on the

Mar Menor Mar Menor (, "minor/smaller sea") is a coastal saltwater lagoon in the Iberian Peninsula located south-east of the Autonomous Community of Murcia, Spain, near Cartagena. Its name is the opposite of the Mediterranean, which is the (greater/larg ...

, which began as a very small

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

settlement and was later urbanised to allow more

holiday home A holiday cottage, holiday home, vacation home, or vacation property is accommodation used for holiday vacations, corporate travel, and temporary housing often for less than 30 days. Such properties are typically small homes, such as cottage ...

s by the Mar Menor. It is now a busy community with many visitors, especially in the summer, with some events at other times. Many foreigners, mainly British, live there. The village is at the eastern terminus of the Cartagena-Los Nietos commuter railway line. The Mar Menor has a 73 km coastline perimeter with numerous beaches with clear, shallow water (maximum depth 7m). The Mar Menor

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

covers an area of 170km2 – making it the largest

Saltwater lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The average annual temperature is 17 °C, winters are mild, with average temperatures not falling much below 10 °C.

La Manga La Manga (), or La Manga del Mar Menor (meaning "The Sandbar of the Minor Sea") is a seaside spit of Mar Menor in the Region of Murcia, Spain. The strip is 21 km long and 100 metres wide (average), separating the Mediterranean Sea from the ...

del Mar Menor itself is a narrow strip of land between two seas, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and Mar Menor, measuring up to 300m in breadth & 21 km in length. It has over 40 km of sandy beaches, a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

s, and is close to the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

central, and to one of the oldest cities in Spain, Cartagena.

Los Alcazares LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

is an old fishing village of 20 km² with 7 km of beaches from Los Narejos to

Punta Brava Punta Brava is a small suburb located just to the southwest of Havana, Cuba, with a population of roughly 1500 inhabitants. It is one of the wards (consejos populares) of the La Lisa municipality. Cuban War of Independence Punta Brava and the nea ...

. There is good transport to Los Alcazares and other nearby places.

Santiago de la Ribera San Javier () is a small town and municipality in the autonomous community and province of Murcia in southeastern Spain. The municipality is situated at the northern end of Murcia's Mediterranean coastline, the Costa Cálida. History There is ...

appeared in 1888 around a hermitage named after the apostle Santiago, and founded by Friar Jose Maria Barnuevo Rodrigo de Villamayor, who was a knight of the

Military Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" (St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgri ...

– for this reason the town was named Santiago de la Ribera.

Cabo de Palos Cape Palos ( es, Cabo de Palos) is a cape in the Spanish municipality of Cartagena, in the region of Murcia. It is part of a small range of volcanic mounts that form a small peninsula. The Mediterranean islands of Grosa and the group known as ...

is a bay on the Mediterranean side of La Manga just before the strip itself. The village has been built on a volcanic backbone of the Murcian coast where fishing has remained one of the livelihoods of the area although it has been modernized.

Playa Honda Playa (plural playas) may refer to: Landforms * Endorheic basin, also known as a sink, alkali flat or sabkha, a desert basin with no outlet which periodically fills with water to form a temporary lake * Dry lake, often called a ''playa'' in the so ...

, Mar de Cristal, Islas Menores, Los Nietos,

Los Urrutias LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

and Punta Brava are small hamlets and villages following the coastline.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nietos, Los, Cartagena Fishing communities in Spain Populated places in the Region of Murcia