Antequera (population about 45,000) is an attractive city with a well-preserved historic center, some fine buildings, and some outstanding natural sites close by. About 4,000 years ago the area was inhabited by people who erected some of Europe’s largest megalithic dolmens (tombs of huge boulders), Cueva de Menga and Cueva de Viera. Menga, the larger of the two, is 82 ft long, 13 ft high, and composed of 31 slabs of stone, the largest of which weighs 180 tons. You can find it about 9.3 miles from the center of Antequera, on the road leading northeast to the N 331.

The Sierra de las Nieves are part of the mountain region of Ronda which, in turn, belongs to the Betic Cordillera. Impressive limestone mountains, deep ravines and abysses characterize the landscape of this mountain range, which reaches a height of up to 1919 m (Torrecilla) - high enough that snow used to be collected here in the past (the Spanish name stands for snow mountains).
In the Sierra de las Nieves, there is a total of 3, 000 ha of Spanish fir forests, the biggest part of such forests in the south of Spain, and one of the biggest stocks of ibexes.
Since 1989 the core area of the Sierra de las Nieves has been protected as a nature park, and since 1995 the Sierra de las Nieves has been declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.

Along the fertile Guadalhorce Valley, shortly after the village of El Chorro, we come across one of Andalusia’s geographical wonders. The Garganta del Chorro is a gorge, in places a mere 30 ft. wide, which the river carved into a 600 ft. sandstone cliff. It can best be seen on the Camino del Rey, a wooden walkway along the cliff that was constructed for a royal visit early this century.

El Torcal is a spectacular limestone rock formation south of Antequera in the otherwise very rural area. 100 million years ago, the whole area was still covered by a huge ocean. The hills and mountains were then shaped during an uplift of the earth shell, maintaining the horizontal layers. From here you have a fantastic view over the whole region, on sunny days you might even see the ocean.