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

About 4,000 years ago, the Sierra de Gádor was the site of the first Mediterranean society to master the processing of copper, a mineral mined and extracted in these mountains. Today, the Los Millares site reveals the remains of the culture that ushered in the Copper Age in the West.
D ating from 2,700 to 1,800 BC, this megalithic structure, discovered by Luis Siret in 1891, clearly demonstrates the scale of this agricultural settlement at that time. The extent of its defenses indicates the prosperity the settlement achieved in its heyday: four large walled precincts can be seen, which expanded over time, the fourth being the largest of the European Copper Age.
But the defensive structures of the people of the second half of the third millennium BC consisted of more than just walls, as the complex was further reinforced externally by a series of smaller forts at the foot of the Sierra de Gádor and on either side of the Rambla de Huéchar.

How did the inhabitants of Los Millares live? This community was primarily engaged in agriculture, but also hunting and livestock farming. However, the most significant innovation compared to previous eras was the discovery of metal extraction and processing, with copper being used to make weapons, tools, and jewelry. This innovation had far-reaching consequences and ushered in a new era in human history, the Metal Age.
The people of Los Millares lived in circular huts and buried their dead outside the village, in communal pits. A reconstructed tholos burial site can be visited at the excavation site. Over 100 graves were discovered in the burial site. Their grave goods can be seen in the Almería Museum and demonstrate the splendor of this culture, which existed three millennia before the Common Era.