Villa Ciscarejo Country house between orange groves in Gádor (Almería)

At the extreme southeastern corner of Spain, where the peninsula bends eastward, lies Cabo de Gata-Níjar, near Almería. A stretch of land open to the sea, its coast has seen numerous civilizations and been besieged by the pirates who once terrorized the Mare Nostrum. A coast that has always looked towards Africa from its watchtowers and centuries-old fortresses.
Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park was declared a protected natural area in 1987. This natural park, with an area of ​​37,500 hectares of land and 12,012 hectares of sea, encompasses parts of the municipalities of Almería, Carboneras, and Níjar. It is characterized by its semi-arid nature, is one of the few nature reserves in Europe with sub-desert and steppe characteristics, and is home to the best-preserved 63 km of coastline on the Andalusian Mediterranean coast. To preserve this important natural area, many of the beaches along Cabo de Gata-Níjar are not accessible by car. They can be reached on foot or by bicycle.

The ecological, environmental, and landscape peculiarity of this area derives from the nature of its volcanic subsoil. The Cabo de Gata volcanic complex represents the erupted part of an extensive magmatic area in the Alboran Zone, which today lies beneath the Mediterranean Sea.
In the marine area, the westernmost meadows of Posidonia oceanica are located, which delimit the sand and mud plains of the fractured rocky bed. In the terrestrial environment, the presence of artineras is noteworthy, plant communities of great ecological importance that form a semi-arid ecosystem whose global distribution is restricted exclusively to the coastal region of Almería and to some towns in Granada and Murcia. These habitat types are among the priority habitats of Community interest listed in the 1992 EU Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora.
The Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in November 1997. Part of its seabed has been declared a Specially Protected Area of ​​Mediterranean Importance. This international conservation objective is based on the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and of the Coastal Zones of the Mediterranean, which aims to halt coastal degradation in the Mediterranean and improve its natural state.
The Natural Park has also been designated a Special Protection Area for Birds since 1989 for the conservation of wild birds and is part of the European ecological network "Natura 2000" created in 1992, as well as a Site of Community Importance.

Cabo de Gata-Níjar by © Google Maps