With clever urban planning, a careful use of water and tactical planting of trees and shrubs towns like Ronda (and others including Priego de Cordoba, Alhaurin and Alhama de Granada) became genuine paradises to live in. Take my advice, for having lived in the area for nearly two decades, nowhere else offers up such a good introduction to the wealth and sophistication of the former Arabic inhabitants who ruled this part of Spain for an incredible 700 years until the late 15th century.

The Banos Arabes, built in the 11th century, are said to be the best preserved in Spain today and, for me, are the best place to start a history tour of Ronda. They were certainly not likely to have enjoyed the wonderful arrival mostly Muslim travellers would have received in the nearby Arabic baths. While intended as a secret, Christians then living in Andalucia used the refrain that ‘in Ronda you die carrying water skins’. Restored in 1911, the deep tunnel was originally carved out by Christian slaves to get water during the reign of Ronda’s Moorish king, Abomelik. Having visited the charming arabic gardens of the Palacio Mondragon and the town’s iconic bullring – Spain’s oldest – she decided to undertake some exercise.īy navigating the ‘la Mina’ staircase down to the bottom of the gorge, she was really getting a true understanding of what makes this mountain town so wonderful.įor down at the bottom by the River Guadalevin – with the steep walls of the famous Tajo towering above, and the swallows and rooks swooping around with gusto – you truly step back in time.

Mountain town the long dark