Experience the Cave Territory
The unique experience of going deep into the bowels of the earth
Can you imagine going deep into the bowels of the earth and letting yourself be embraced by it?
Connect with the way of life our ancestors experienced?
In the Geopark of Granada you will discover the true meaning of the concept of "troglodyte", the incredible feeling of living in a cave, a unique habitat where sustainability, tradition and innovation go hand in hand.
Another way of understanding life, in perfect connection with nature, where silence dwells and where the constant temperature that this type of housing maintains throughout the year offers you coolness in summer and warmth in winter. Because there are no better hugs than those offered by mother earth.
But, let's make a little bit of history:
In the Geopark of Granada, although cultures such as El Argar began to excavate hollows to use them as burial places, it was not until the Middle Ages when the troglodyte habitat with a hermitage function began to become generalized, or as part of enclaves whose fortification was based on the fortification of a hill limited by a river, vegetation and underground ditches, as in the case of the Tía Mía Cave.tic function or forming part of enclaves that base their fortification on the perforation of a hill limited by a river, vegetation and subway ditches, as is the case of the Cueva de la Tía Micaela in Cortes y Graena, Almagruz in Purullena, or the Haffas de Benamaurel.
It was probably after the Almohad invasion of Al-Andalus, when these enclaves were generalized as a legacy of the Berber culture.
But it is after the Christian conquest when the Moors, progressively displaced from the villages, excavate a multitude of new caves in their surroundings, or take advantage of the old abandoned fortifications, reaching this phenomenon urban dimension at the end of the sixteenth century, when these, expelled after the uprising led by Abén Humeya, return chameleon-like without the possibility of recovering their old possessions.
Later, in the 17th century, the repopulators who arrived from other regions of the Peninsula after the order of definitive expulsion of the Moors by Felipe III, also used them as dwellings. And at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, with the sugar industry as the driving force of an important demographic growth, the last great wave of troglodytic growth took place in the Geopark, becoming the most important area of the country in terms of population growth.The Geopark became the area of the country with the highest concentration of caves, and with a troglodytism still alive that defines troglodytic landscapes that mark an original sign of identity of this land.
Today these houses, with all the comforts of an ordinary house and with the advantages of its bioclimatic nature, become a tourist reference of the Altiplano at the disposal of the visitor's enjoyment.
Discover a unique accommodation, savor the gastronomy of the territory in cave restaurants, visit museums excavated in clay soils, relax in Arab baths in the bowels of the earth.
Experience the Cave Territory.