El Torcal de Antequera

El Torcal de Antequera is a natural site of 1,171 hectares, in Antequera (Málaga), famous for the whimsical shapes that erosion has sculpted in its limestone rocks. It was recognised in 1929 as Andalusia's first protected natural area of national interest, declared a natural site in 1989 and a special conservation area in 2014; since 2016 it has been part of the Antequera Dolmens Site, a World Heritage Site.

Its Jurassic limestones, between 201 and 145 million years old, were uplifted more than 1,000 metres, and karst erosion has shaped them into forms such as the 'screw'. It holds more than a hundred chasms and caves, among them the Sima de la Unión, 225 metres deep, and the Cueva de El Toro, inhabited since the Neolithic.

There are holm oaks, thorn scrub and endemics such as Saxifraga biternata, and griffon vultures, golden eagles and Spanish ibex live there. It is reached from Antequera by the A-343 and A-7075 roads.

Source of the information: Torcal de Antequera (Wikipedia)