Despeñaperros

Despeñaperros

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Desfiladero de Despeñaperros (Spanish for " hollow way of Despeñaperros ") is a situated in the Sierra Morena to the north of the province of Jaén mountain pass, which is protected as a nature park. Since time immemorial, the Pass of Despeñaperros, the only breaking through the Sierra Morena applies, as a gateway to Andalucia. By the scenic mountain landscape winds up in deep gorges of the same river. In the forests, which are formed mainly from holm oak and cork oak, live deer and wild boar, lynx and wolves are occasionally sighted. Today the national road N- IV, results from Cordoba to La Mancha through this pass.

The Desfiladero de Despeñaperros is for the history of Spain and the Reconquista crucial. On July 16, 1212 Alliance of Christian kings under the leadership of Alfonso VIII conquered by Castile in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on the Almohad and paved the way for the conquest of the south of the Iberian Peninsula by Castile.

The man who showed these strategically important mountain pass to the King of Navarre, was Martin Alhaja, an ancestor of the conquistador, explorer and travel writer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca ( Cabeza de Vaca, Spanish " " cow head " ) because the pass time with a cow head was marked.

• Pass in Spain
• Mountain pass
• Geography (Andalusia )