From Salvador Dali to Juan Ponce de Leon, the list of famous dead people from Spain is long. Some of the more famous names include artists Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya and architect Anotoni Gaudi.
Famous Spanish people long dead include Hernan Cortes, the famous explorer who led the expedition that brought about the fall of the Aztec Empire. Miguel de Cervantes is probably the most famous Spanish writer and one of the most important literary figures in history for his work, "Don Quixote."
Notably, Christopher Columbus is often mistaken for a Spaniard because he worked for the Spanish. However, he was from Genoa.