Andalusia 2020

Friday30October

Waking up in front of the Luis Portero García square which our apartment overlooks. We leave Granada for the day but will be back tonight for a last night in the city. The day will be dedicated to the Gorafe area where an archaeological site and nothing less than a desert are located!

Gorafe is a 1 hour drive from Granada, and approaching the village we are already immersed in the reddish relief of a landscape that seems not to have moved since the Paleolithic...

We park the car not far from the village church. All that remains is for us to use our feet to reach the megalithic site where several dolmens are visible.

We must leave the village following a one-kilometer path to arrive at the foot of the mountain where prehistoric remains await us on the plateau located 100 meters higher.

The view of Gorafe from the megalithic site.

And here is the first dolmen, numbered 65!
"Dolmens are generally interpreted as chamber tombs, funerary monuments having housed collective burials" © Wikipedia

These dolmens of about 5000 years were set up in the Neolithic period to bury the dead. In slightly less ancient times, the large stones thus arranged served as shelters for local shepherds, hence the name given to these dolmens of "Cobertera" (cover).

Zoom on Gorafe

Dolmen 66 and Gorafe on the other side of the rift.

Dolmens 77 and 74. At least, what remains of them...

Let's leave the archaeological site to sink into the Gorafe desert. It is advisable to cross the area in a 4x4 because some passages require the use of 4-wheel drive. We decide to do without, and try the adventure with our little 2-wheel drive! We'll see who's the strongest!    

The landscape is superb, I feel like I'm in front of a movie set so much this relief appears out of nowhere!

The Coloraos show us their famous colors on the different sediment layers alternating red and white...

Between the coloraos and the colorados of the United States, there is only one step!

And we were not stronger than the relief, because we will be unable to get the 208 up the steep stony paths! We will therefore not be able to finish the loop properly and pitifully turn back!   But it's without regret, because we got an eyeful!;;

Return to Granada for one last night. Tomorrow we will reach Malaga with a small exploration of one of the largest caves in Europe: the Cueva de Nerja.