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Ardales is at the foot of a large crag which has the ruins of an old castle, near the river Turon, on a ridge between the northern foothills of the Serrania de Ronda (sierra of Alcaparain) and the Antequera depression (a complex of the Guadalhorce reservoirs). Although one would like to set this municipality in the Valle del Guadalhorce, there are no arguments that support any similarity with the characteristics of that region.
As with all the transition areas, it presents a varied landscape, in which elements of a peculiar enchantment are joined together. Thus, in the Sierra de la Pizarra (covered in pine forests where there are no rocks), to the showiness of the gorge, Desfiladero de los Gaitanes, the singularity of the Tafonis (type of cave or cavities in small sandy headlands) are joined together.
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The visitor can contemplate them near the road which leads from the gorge to the reservoir area, and also the characteristic marks of manīs actions which lead from the troglodite dwellings up to the reservoir, built on the peak of the Mesas de Villaverde, and passing by Mozarabic church in Bobastro, which has been caved into the rock.To the south of Bobastro and from the previously mentioned reservoir, the landscape is formed by large hills, covered in olives and pine woods which continue over the sierras de Aguas and the thermes in the neighbouring municipalities of Alora and Carratraca.
After a small plain in which the Peņa de Ardales stands out, the landscape returns to mountains in the Sierra de Alcaparain. There, at the foot of the craggy hillside, covered in pine forests, is the valley of the Turon river, where the highland's waters descend, from Lifa and El Burgo. The ruins of the Turon castle look out over the valley as the guardians of history, which in other times watched the transit between the highland and the valley. Further from the castle, the hills still dominate the panorama, sometimes covered in olives, other times with pines and hollows of cereals. The cereal fields dominate the north of the municipality, where the water of the Conde de Guadalhorce reservoir does not reach. This reservoir and especially the pine grove covered banks in the Parque Ardales area form one of the most attractive sceneries in the municipality.
Such a varied and suggestive panorama could not offer a less rich history. The presence of prehistoric man left its mark in various points of the municipality, especially in the Cueva de Doņa Trinidad Grund, or Cueva de Ardales (caves). Later, there were the bastulos (indigenous pre-roman people) and the Celtiberians who settled near the Castillo de Turon and were probably the builders of the first fortification in Ardales, of which Plinio called Turobriga.
The romans, as well as improving the old fortification, built the castle of la Peņa and the Molina bridge over the Turon river.
In the year 716, Ardales was conquered by the emir, Alhur el Tagafi, who gave it the name of Ard-Allah (garden or land of god). Ardales acquires a special importance with the Arabs. Here, Omar Ben Hafsun built the fort of Bobastro with which he held a threat over the caliphate of Cordoba, and also improved the Roman castle and the town fort.The strategic position of Ardales caused the frequent battles betwen the Arabs and the Christians, until in 1389 the Christians conquered the castle and the urban nucleus, and signed the Ardales Pact with the Arabs.
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Association of Independent Estate Agents