Spain Andalucia Ardales and El Chorro

catherine · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

Andalucia Málaga province - Ardales Village - El Chorro Gorge

Ardales is well known to Spaniards who spend summers at its reservoir-side campgrounds, is perched along the border of the Ronda mountains. Throughout the centuries, this town been inhabited and conquered by numerous peoples, who generously left their marks in the form of archaeological sites and important monuments.

It appears that Ardales was considered to be an attractive place to live - or at least make camp - as far back as the Neolithic period. Today remains are found near the castle and the church. Copper age remains have also been found in the Ardales cave.

Civilisation seems to have reached this area with the Romans who contributed the castle. Perhaps such an attraction made the area appealing to the Moors, who later took the town, gave it a new name - Ard-Allah, or Land of Allah - and settled in for a few hundred years. They also left their mark in the form of monuments, and built the mosque that would later serve as a foundation for the 15th century church that still stands today.

The lakes and reservoirs surrounding Ardales make this area a delightful getaway - one that Spaniards readily take advantage of during the hotter summer months, and small hotels and rural resorts supplement the campgrounds, while water sports are a well known theme for holiday makers.

The road winds to El Chorro via Bobastro which is the remains of a 9th century Mozarabic (Arabized Christian) from where a Robin-Hood like character called Ibn Hafsun controlled an area extending from Gibraltar to Jaén. Malaga's "Lake District" is in fact three artificial lakes created by a dam built across the dramatic 200 metre high Guadalhorce river gorge, known as the Garganta del Chorro. Watch out for the eagles which continually circle around the sheer cliffs The spectacular, yet relatively unknown, Garganta del Chorro lies to the south of the impressive Embalse del Guadalhorce inland from Malaga. It is a 4 km long gorge with walls as high as 200 metres. Along the walls of the gorge is the Camino del Rey, a footbridge that was built in the 1920s during the development of the reservoir system. It is named after King Alfonso XIII who walked its length when he opened these reservoirs. In spite of what many guidebooks say, it is extremely dangerous and walking it is no longer permitted. Despite the warnings every year at least a few tourists try it. Much to the consternation of us locals who have to drive past and see, idiots perched on a ledge 350 feet up, where the ledge does not exceed a foot in width in places.

At El Chorro you can simply take a look at the Gorge from a distance or if you want to be more daring you can walk through several railway tunnels to get spectacular views looking from the railway line. You may have seen the gorge and not realised it, it was the setting for the film Von Ryan’s Express