NATURAL PARK KARST IN SORBAS YESOS

Located in the easternmost part of the Tabernas-Sorbas corridor, which is the driest area in Europe, this 2,375-hectare park contains one of the most impressive beauties of Andalusia: a subterranean world of more than 1,000 cavities, created in rock and plaster by thousands of years of rainfall. The story began more than 6 million years ago when the Mediterranean Sea was still invading the Sorbas basin. As it gradually became shallower, it was subjected to a strong evaporation process that eventually gave rise to an enormous mass of gypsum over 100 metres thick. Once the sea had completely receded, it was the slow action of the rain that shaped the sediments and plaster that remained on the surface into an unusually beautiful quartz landscape. Today, a system of underground galleries of almost 8,500 metres in length remains. Most of these galleries meet, giving rise to a spectacular landscape of crystalline forms: stalagmites, stalactites, columns and corals, of great scientific, geological and didactic interest. On the surface, this arid steppe is home to endemic plants such as the Sorbas narcissus, or emblematic species of the southeast of the peninsula such as the mora turtle. The rocky cliffs serve as a refuge for royal owls and, in the holes, foxes, badgers and weasels can be found.