Its head or capital city is Alcalá de Henares. Officially the Community of Madrid is not subdivided into formal comarcas; however, informally some governmental institutions have defined some shires according to different views. The shire of Alcalá doesn't figure in any of these partitions. The territory is made up by two natural sub-shires, La Campiña and Alcarria de Alcalá.
Its name comes from the Arabic القلعة (Al-Qal'at) whose means "the castle", referring to the first of the Muslim castles placed along the banks of the Henares River.
