Best ancient sites in Spain

Spain’s ancient sites are overwhelmingly Roman, the legacy of the province of Hispania, with older megaliths at Antequera and one great Islamic palace-city, Medina Azahara outside Córdoba. Andalusia holds the most: Italica near Seville, birthplace of Trajan and Hadrian; Baelo Claudia on the beach near Tarifa; the Antequera dolmens; the rock-cut tombs of Carmona; and Málaga’s theatre below the Alcazaba. Mérida, capital of Lusitania, has the finest Roman theatre in the country, Tarragona an amphitheatre by the sea and an aqueduct bridge in the woods, Cartagena a theatre reached through its museum, and Segovia its aqueduct of 167 arches striding across the town.