Salamanca is a city in western Spain, the capital of the province of Salamanca, which belongs to the autonomous community of Castile and Leon (Castilla y Le??n). The Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It lies about 200 km west of Madrid and 100 km east of the Portuguese border. With a population around 160,000 and with its metropolitan area the population rises to more than 200.000, also it is necessary to count the resident students, it is the third most populated city in Castile and Leon, following Valladolid. Salamanca is known both for its monumental sights and the University of Salamanca, which was founded in 1218 and is the oldest university in Spain and the fifth oldest western university. With its 30,000 students, the university is, together with tourism, the economic engine of the city. Salamanca is also known for the teaching of the Spanish language; in this field, Salamanca supplies 16% of the market within Spain and attracts thousands of foreign students. The city was founded in the pre-Ancient Rome period by the Vacceos, a Celtic tribe, as one of a pair of forts to defend their territory near the Duero river. In the third century BCE, Hannibal laid siege to the city. With the fall of the Carthaginians to the Romans, the city of Helmantica, as it was known, began to take more importance as a commercial hub in the Roman Hispania due to its favorable location. Salamanca lay on a Roman road, known as the Via de la Plata, which connected it with Emerita Augusta (present day M??rida to the south and Asturica Augusta (present-day Astorga) to the north. The Roman bridge dating to the first century, was a part of this road. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Alans established in Lusitania, and Salamanca was part of this region. Later the city was conquered by the Visigoths and included in their territory. The city was a already an episcopal see, and signatures of bishops of Salamanca are found in the Councils of Toledo. Salamanca...