Discover Ardales – Cave Art, Gorges and Culture

The Cueva de Ardales contains extensive Palaeolithic paintings and engravings: 1,010 figurative depictions in 252 different panels or areas are known. The cave is located on Cerro de la Calinoria at an elevation of 565 metres in the municipality of Ardales, around 50 kilometres north of Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

If you are looking for holiday accommodation in Ardales, compare the travel dates, room category and cancellation conditions on the respective offer pages before choosing accommodation; these three details keep the factual comparison clear.

Related local pages: El Chorro, Pantano Del Chorro, Alameda, Villafranco del Guadalhorce, Los Puertas, Gaucín, Teba, El Borge.

Culture

The guided tour of the Cueva de Ardales lasts two hours for regular groups. The tour includes Palaeolithic art from the two major phases of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, various excavation areas, a Neolithic burial site and the visitor reception centre.

The Castillo de la Peña is a fortress registered as a Bien de Interés Cultural (BIC) on a rocky hilltop, with two clearly recognisable defensive rings built of masonry and a current cultural use.

The Castillo de Turón is a fortress registered as a Bien de Interés Cultural (BIC) west of the centre of Ardales. It stands above the riverbed of the Río Turón and features several flanking towers, an angled entrance with a ramp and a barbican.

Bobastro is a medieval archaeological complex from the 9th and 10th centuries with a Mozarabic church carved into the rock, a Muslim necropolis and an adjoining hermitic-monastic complex. The Centro de Interpretación de la Prehistoria de Guadalteba is located in the former municipal museum of Ardales, extends over two floors and includes, among other things, a virtually designed room, audiovisual content and an exhibition of an excavation of a Bronze Age necropolis carried out on site.

The Caminito del Rey was built between 1901 and 1905. The path began at the Renfe railway tracks and led through the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes to facilitate the crossing between its two sides. In 1921, King Alfonso XIII crossed the previously constructed path at the Conde del Guadalhorce dam.

Nature

The Desfiladero de los Gaitanes is designated both as a Zona Especial de Conservación (ZEC) and as a Zona de Especial Protección para las Aves (ZEPA). The protected natural area of Desfiladero de los Gaitanes, also known as Garganta del Chorro, has vertical rock walls up to 300 metres high and, in many sections, a width of no more than ten metres.

The Conde de Guadalhorce Reservoir is one of Ardales’s natural tourist resources; visitors come to its shores to relax, as well as to canoe, go boating and swim.

Local Tradition

The traditional Fiesta de la Matanza in Ardales preserves the old tradition of sharing home-slaughter products, a pork Caldereta stew and regional sausages with neighbours. The celebration includes free tastings of typical sausages such as Chorizo, Morcilla and Salchichón, as well as a pork Caldereta stew prepared over a wood fire. The event is recognised as a festival of special tourist importance at provincial level.

The Festival Flamenco de Ardales reached its 47th edition and offered a programme celebrating the art and passion of flamenco.

For the higher-level travel overview: Málaga.