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By carNilsf — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)Granada and Almería, Spain · Spain
The southern slope of the Sierra Nevada, with villages above fourteen hundred metres and the sea in sight on clear days. This is where the Moriscos took refuge after the fall of Granada, and where Arabic went on being spoken until the late 16th century. The architecture is Berber and resembles nothing else in Spain: white flat-roofed houses covered in launa, streets with covered passages, and irrigation channels that have worked for a thousand years. In 1568 they rose against Philip II, lost and were expelled; almost the whole region had to be resettled.
Lanjarón, Órgiva and the three villages · 33 km
bodoklecksel — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)culture
The gateway to the Alpujarra, known for its bottled water for over a century. Its waters have been used for healing since the late 18th century, and above the village stand the ruins of the so-called Moors' Castle, where, so the story goes, its last defender threw himself into the void rather than surrender.
Fill up here or in Órgiva: up there petrol stations are few and close early.
15 min to the next stop · 9 km
Graham Beards at English Wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)culture
The commercial capital of the Alpujarra, with a Thursday market the whole valley comes down for. For decades it has drawn alternative communities from across Europe, giving it a mix no other village here has.
If you come on a Thursday, this is the place. The market is the best picture of what the Alpujarra is now: lifelong farmers and people from far away, in the same square.
25 min to the next stop · 15 km
Mark Chinnick — CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)heritage
The three villages of the Poqueira gorge, stacked one above the other on the same slope. They preserve intact the Berber architecture the Moriscos brought: whitewashed flat-roofed houses covered with launa, a waterproofing clay, and the tinaos, those covered passages that cross the streets beneath the houses.
Drive up to Capileira, the highest at fourteen hundred metres, and walk down to Bubión: forty minutes on a path between vegetable plots, with all three villages seen from outside.
Pórtugos, Busquístar and Trevélez · 12 km
Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) — CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)nature
At Pórtugos rises the Fuente Agria, an iron-rich spring that has stained the rock and the whole streambed red; beside it is the Chorreón, a waterfall in a chestnut gorge. Busquístar, a little further on, is among the least changed villages.
The Fuente Agria water is drinkable and really does taste of iron. People here have been drinking it for centuries for its properties.
20 min to the next stop · 12 km
CARANDELL Y PERICAY, Juan (1893-1937) — Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)gastronomy
One of the highest villages in Spain, at one thousand four hundred and seventy-six metres, spread over three stepped quarters. Its ham is cured in the cold, dry mountain air, and has carried a royal seal since 1862, when Isabella II granted it the right to brand its hams with the crown; protected geographical indication status came in 2005.
Eat the ham here, in any curing house. And climb to the upper quarter: most people stop in the lower one by the road and miss the real village.
Yegen, Válor and Mecina Bombarón · 50 km
GRGO — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)culture
Gerald Brenan lived here in the twenties, and out of that stay came 'South from Granada', the book that made the Alpujarra known outside Spain. Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey visited his house, who came up here on muleback.
Brenan's house has a plaque and can be seen from outside. It is hard to picture the Bloomsbury set riding mules up here, but that is exactly what happened.
10 min to the next stop · 5 km
PicGuy — CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)history
Válor was the birthplace of Aben Humeya, the Morisco who in 1568 led the Alpujarras rebellion against Philip II. The war lasted until 1571, ended with the expulsion of the Moriscos and emptied the whole region, which had to be resettled with settlers from other regions.
Válor's Moors and Christians festival in September re-enacts that rebellion. It is not a generic medieval pageant: it is their own history.
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