What do you know about Andalusia? I am under the impression that Andalusia is a backwards place, with deplorable schools, ignorant people and bad government. I have never been there but that is the impression I get from the official website of Andalusia, Alabama, where they claim "A Proud Heritage - A Progressive Future". I know nothing about their heritage but when you are really backwards and ignorant the future can only be better. In their page titled "Fast Facts" it says It is assumed that since Spain has an Andalusia Province, that this City was named Andalusia because of this influence. The page would more accurately be titled "Fast and loose facts we just made up". I must think that Andalusia, Alabama, cannot afford decent teachers. At least not a decent geography teacher because otherwise they would know that Andalusia is not a province of Spain but a region of Spain which comprises several provinces. The page goes on to say: The word, Andalusia, is a combination of two Spanish words. Ande, meaning "to walk", and Lutier, which means "easy". So Andalusia means "to walk easy" or a place where being is most comfortable and easy. I could quibble with "Ande" meaning "to walk" but let us overlook that. "Lutier" means "easy" in Spanish? Obviously the city of Andalusia cannot afford a Spanish teacher, or even a Spanish dictionary, or even an Internet connection or even a quarter for a phone call to someone who speaks Spanish or to the National Geographic Society. Lutier is not a Spanish word at all and has no similarity or resemblance to any Spanish word which means "easy" or "difficult" or "banana". This is just plain, made-up, crap. Search the Internet for "lutier" and see how many pages in Spanish you find. If those responsible for the website could read a book or could type "google" into their browser they could easily find out that the name "Andalucía" derives from the Arabic name for the region, "Al Andalus". From Wikipedia we can learn that The name of today's Andalucia comes from "Al-Andalus" which is derived from the Vandals, the Germanic tribe who settled in southern Iberia and Northern Africa. This is the Arabic term for Muslim Iberian Peninsula, both the Caliphate proper and the period of Muslim rule (711 - 1492). Andalus is considered to have ceased to exist with the fall of the last Spanish-Muslim kingdom, the Amirate of Gharnatah (Granada, Spain) in 1492. "Al" is the Arabic article meaning "the"; "Al Andalus" means "The Vandals". So, in summary, "Andalusia" is derived from "Vandals", the Germanic people who overran Spain and northern Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Obviously, that is also the origin of the meaning of "vandal" as "one who defaces, damages or destroys someone else's property". Some time ago I wrote the web master pointing out the error but since it has not been corrected I feel entitled to point it out. The error is repeated in a number of other web sites which, I imagine, have copied from that source. I may add them to this page of shame if I feel they are being persistent in their ignorance. . Added 9 January 2007: I first wrote this page in January 2005. It seems the domain andalusianet.com is no longer on line but there are still several sites which repeat the blunder. Google search