Desfiladero de Los Gaitanes Natural Area

Desfiladero de los Gaitanes (Gaitanes Ravine) Natural Area, which covers 2,016 hectares, includes part of the municipal districts of Álora, Antequera and Ardales and is situated in the very centre of the province of Málaga. With elevations which vary between 240 metres above
sea level and the 1,195 metres of elevation of the Sierra Huma massif, this natural area amazes visitors with its perfect juxtaposition of the two typical landscapes here: on the one hand are the jutting mountain peaks and, on the other, the smoothness of the reservoirs that surround them.
 

This protected area takes in the Sierra de Huma, Sierra de la Pizarra and the Gaitanes cliff and ravine. These are made up of a series of stratified calcareous rocks which give rise to spectacular landforms. The centre-point of this natural area is the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes itself. This is another of Nature's quirks resulting in the place where the Guadalhorce River merges with the Baetic Cordillera to form the narrow gorge known as El Chorro (The Torrent) or El Desfiladero de los Gaitanes. More than five kilometres long and with spectacular steep sidewalls reaching up to 400 metres high, the gorge forms a tight passageway; the water of the river surges through it, carrying everything in its path.

El Desfiladero de los Gaitanes was designated as an Exceptional Area in the province of Málaga's Catalogue of Protected Spaces and Goods in 1987. The Autonomous Government of Andalusia subsequently classified it as a Natural Area, in 1989. Clinging to the walls of the gorge of El Desfiladero is the seven-kilometre long "Caminito del Rey" (The King's Road). Currently closed to the public, this impressive pathway hanging halfway between the earth and the sky was constructed at the beginning of the past century to allow railway workers to access the railroad being built inside the gorge. What was initially a service road went on to be called "The King's Road" after Alfonso
XIII walked the length of the path on the 21st of May 1921 in order to inaugurate work on the railroad.