Hiking trail in Andalucía - Paraje Natural Torcal de Antequera (Torcal de Antequera Nature Reserve)
The Torcal de Antequera Nature Reserve is the most important, beautiful karstic phenomenon in Spain, and it is located near the city of Antequera, in the province of Malaga.
Its formation is due to a process that has lasted several hundred million years. For this we must go back about 200 million years, when much of Europe and the Middle East were submerged under the sea of Tethys, begins a process of carbonated sedimentation, caused by the accumulation and deposit of skeletons and shells of marine animals at the bottom of the sea that will last about 175 million years.
These sediments have been accumulating and compacting at different levels, forming the horizontal strata of thicknesses of thousands of meters.
Towards the middle Miocene, as a consequence of the thrust between the Iberian plates to the north of the Tethys Sea and the African to the south, the accumulated sediments are compressed, deformed and fractured until emerging in a slow and continuous process that still remains. Once the relief emerged, the prolonged action of meteorological agents such as water, ice and wind on the limestone, modeled the spectacular karst landscape of El Torcal de Antequera.
The geological structure of El Torcal Natural Park is another aspect that has favored the process of dissolving the limestones.
A large mushroom-shaped fold, with a very wide top and horizontal layers, and short, steep flanks, limited by significant fractures, favors the accumulation of water on the surface and its infiltration.
The karst behaves like a large sponge, stores the rainwater and transmits it to the interior, thus favoring the underground dissolution, to finally evacuate it back to the outside at its lowest part, along the entire perimeter of El Torcal, being the most important water spring the “Nacimiento de La Villa”, located on the north side.
The Torcal de Antequera Natural Park has a network of trails for public use that run through part of the natural area. The routes for public use are freely accessible, free and are marked so that anyone can travel without authorization.
There are 3 routes in El Torcal - A Green, Yellow, and Orange.
I was experiencing the Yellow Route - a circular tour of 3km.
It starts in the upper parking and ends at the Visitor Center.
The route crosses the Torcal Alto, a labyrinthine area where it is easy to be disoriented when leaving the signposted trail.
The first and last section coincides with the Green Route. Once past the fork crossing of both routes, the Yellow Route goes into areas where it dominates the shade so they are more humid areas and with dense vegetation.
Several elements to highlight: from figures such as “El Dedo”, “El Camello”, “La Jarra” and “La Botella”, to arboreal specimens such as the Montpellier Maple, declared Singular Corner by ‘Diputación de Málaga’ and included in the Inventory of Unique Trees and Grove of Andalusia.
Route features:
Length: 3 km – circular
Gradient: + 53m
Estimated duration: 2 hours
Land: very stony and irregular
Information used here: https://torcal.solbyte.dev
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