Dream trip to Spain: Ronda

My husband earned a rewards trip with a company who wishes not to be named.  It was a trip that we've dreamed of taking for years.  The first excursion we had was to the town called Ronda.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Ronda,_Spain.
 The few pictures there do not do it justice.  It is definitely a place to see on your own.

We drove from Marbella to Ronda by taking C-339 or A-397 (each map I looked at had a different number for the same road). .As we drove up we would see quaint places tucked into the country side.  Like this area.

Houses along A-397 or C-339 on the road to Ronda

 From the one map I had it look like we were going through  Sierra Real on the right and Sierra Bermeja on the left.  And on the right was the Parque Natual Sierra De Las Nieves, with the Penon de los Emamordados @ 1775 m. and Torrrecilla @ 1918 m. 
     Again we were seeing some road outcrops that I wanted to stop and look like but we had a timetable to stick to so that we could meet up with our guide.
 Yet we still had a way to go and the trip took over an hour to get there. The road was very curvy and at that point some of the people were feeling it.

The curvy road A-397 or C-339 on the way to Ronda, Spain

  One of the things I did observe was this white area in the mountains.  I realize they were quarrying the rock. From the looks of what they were taking out it look like it was probably marble or limestone.

quarry seen from the road to Ronda

 This didn't surprise me because at the time we were driving through an area that looked like it was limestone also.

 I felt like we were getting close to the area when I saw this bull grazing on the country side.

     While traveling it was interesting because it was such a cloudy day with the clouds hanging low.  One of the people on our bus had an his iphone with him and found out that the clouds were hanging at about 3000 feet.  As we were driving up we drove into the clouds so we knew we were at about 3000 feet above sea level.  I'm not used to being at sea level and within a hour to be up 3000 feet.  No wonder some people were getting car sick with all these changes in elevation. .
    I saw this other quarry that was a lot closer to the road and tried to take its pictures of it but the clouds were such the picture didn't take.

 As we were approaching Ronda it felt like we were going down into a basin area.  From Wikipedia Rondo Spain has an elevation of about 2300 feet.

Finally we got to the area where the buses could park and drop us off.  We had to walk a ways to get to things of interest to see.  We didn't mind it because we were getting the feel of the city as we were walking.
 This was very typical of how the building looked like as we walked.

Walking along Virgen De La, Ronda Spain

  Ronda Spain is famous because it is the place where the first big Bullring made with stone walls was built.  Its diameter is 66.5 meters.  It was inaugurated May 1785. Through the years many famous people had come to this ring to see the bull fights.  One of the most famous to Americans is Ernest Hemingway.  So of course that was one of the first things we had to visit while we were there. This is in front of  the building.and is part of the Plaza De Toros.

Cayetano Ordonez Sculpture with the Gate to the Picadero on the right. Ronda Spain

 These two figure were famous Bullfighters or matadors.  Cayetano was the father and he was in the the ring from 1923 - 1942.  His son Antonio was also just as famous and was a Matador from 1951-1980.

The statue of Antonio Ordonez, Ronda Spain

 We had to stop and get tickets at  the Plaza Teniente in order to go in and see the Toros. 

 I liked this statue that was near the stone wall of the bullring.

 In the Plaza Teniente Arce area there was also this sculpture of a bull. 

 

   A different view of the Bull Sculpture.

Bull Sculpture in Plaza Teniente Arce, Ronda Spain

 They only let so many people in at a time to see the ring.  This was nice because it really  let you see the ring. 

Behind the protective walls of the Bullring, Ronda Spain

The Bullring in Ronda Spain

 I wasn't expecting to actually be able to go out into the ring itself and see things from the point of view of the matador.  Its a lot bigger than it looks and one shot can't do it justice.

The royal seating area of the bullring in Ronda Spain

 This is the area where the royalty would sit. This location was chosen because it would keep them in the shade during the fights.   It was interesting to see that there were iron barriers keeping other people away from them.

 This is the area where the bull would come out of.  It was a lot narrower than I expected. My husband had to check it out.

The chute were the bull enters the bullring

 While we were there it started to rain so we went into the museum part of the structure.  You were not allowed to take photos there.  I must admit seeing some of it was quite colorful and interesting.  We had about 20 minutes to view things, which was just enough time for the rain to turn into a light drizzle and for us to see most of it.

  Our guide joked with us and said that in this part of Spain the weather is beautiful 360 days a year.  We just happened to pick one of the 5 days were its not. I know he wasn't being very truthful with us because we were in the mountains and realized they probably get a whole lot more rain than that, but I got his point that this area of Spain is very pretty most of the time.  The rain didn't matter to us.  We still wanted to see things.

Espinel, Ronda Spain

 This street was one of the main market vendor streets.  We were given some time to explore and to shop.

When we talked to people about going to Ronda they mostly talked about the Bullring and that was what I thought was the main tourist attraction.  But as our guide took us around he showed us things that I found were a whole lot more interesting to look at. He took us to the Paseo De Blas Infante.   I was amazed to see  this breath taking view.  As we were walking along the rim I just had to get this photo.

 And here's a photo looking down towards the base of this cliff.  The cliff is suppose to be 100 meters deep.
The guide told us that Ernest Hemingway liked coming to Ronda to watch the bull fights.  The people of the area liked to believe his book 'For whom the Bell Tolls' was about this town even though in the book it had a fictional name.  I never read that particular story by Hemingway so I couldn't tell for sure or not.  I have read his 'The Sun also Rises' and this town definitely influence that book.  I also read his autobiography 'A Moveable Feast' about his time in Paris and it was obvious he like this region a lot. After seeing the area I could understand why he'd like to come visit this place more than once.  I know I wish I can get back to see it again too.

The Cliffs at Ronda Spain

We kept on walking along the rim to the Plaza Espana.  

Plaza Espana  & Tajo De Ronda (Ronda Gorge),  Spain

  Isn't this an incredible view!.  At this point I didn't care that it was raining.  I wanted to see it all.  This shot was taken to show what we had just walked along.  I was so fascinated by this.  I asked the guide what caused this gorge and he said he was told a fault.  So I started to look for signs of the faulting and the displacement I should be seeing.  Trouble was I didn't see what I expected to see.  What struck me was when someone said it looked like this place had been cut with a giant knife.  This got me thinking about things.  I wondered if this area had been raised like in the Grand Canyon area and the river was doing the cutting. I could just imagine this area being uplifted when the North African plate merged with the European plate.

Tajo De Ronda - the La Ciudad area

 Looking across the Ronda Gorge this is what you see.

  We then came upon what is one of the towns main attraction and I must admit it does get your attention.  This bridge is called Puente Nuevo (or New Bridge).  This bridge connected the city together.  The La Ciudad (the old burrow) is the oldest part of the town and was built by the Romans and later taken over by the Moors.  It was obvious that the spot was chosen because of its natural defenses and its being a source for fresh drinking water.

Puente Nuevo, Ronda Spain

 The bridge was started in 1751 and was finished in 1793. The architect was Jose Martin de Aldehuela. When it was complete it was considered a Modern Marvel of its time.

Looking at the base of Puente Nuevo, Ronda Spain

Moi with the Puente Nuevo in the background

 Here I am standing with it in the background.  I was definitely having a bad hair day but it was worth it to get this shot. 

   The river that cuts the Gorge is called Rio Guadalevin.  I think I heard the guide say the river got its name because of the milky look of the water - but I'm not positive about this. The day we were there it was not very noticeable. In fact you had to look really hard to see it. 
     Looking down the gorge you can see some terraces.  These were the Moorish Baths. We did not have enough time to go see them.

Rio Guadalevin

 I think this is another view of the Moorish baths. 

 And another view of the Moorish baths.  There is another bridge in these photos.  Its the Moorish Bridge or more commonly referred to as the old bridge (Puente Viejo).  This bridge was built upon an old Roman bridge.

Puente Viejo and Casa Del Rey Mooro

To the right of the old bridge is 'Casa Del Rey Mooro' The Moorish palace.  The guide didn't believe it was truly a Moorish palace but did admit to it being an impressive structure.  He did say there are stairs there that take you all the way down the gorge and that was how they used to bring up water to the place.

 Here's a picture of our guide. Mr Martin.

Typical narrow street in the La Ciudad area of Ronda

 We walked through some of the narrow streets that were very typical in this area.  He reminded us that all these homes were built before cars were invented and a family was lucky to own a horse let alone a carriage.  All the streets were designed for pedestrian traffic.
  The other thing he pointed out was that most of the home are white and the walls are a couple of feet thick.  They are built this way because of the heat of the summer, it was their way of keeping cool before air conditioning was invented.  
   One of the more famous places is this church which houses the patron saint of Ronda - "Our Lady of Peace'.  You were not allowed to take pictures inside of the alter area with the Lady of Peace.  But I did look inside and it was a very beautiful church.

I think this was the Minaret of San Sebastian but I'm not positive. I just liked it because I thought the tile work on it was so pretty and different. 

Here's another little alcove we saw that I loved the tile work on it.  The view from it was incredible.  We tried getting a picture made but we just could not do it justice.
     Here's a couple of other things I found interesting in Ronda while I was there.

Statue of the Bullfighter Pedro Romero, at the Alameda De Tajo

Church of La Meced

 We continued to walk to the Casa Mondragon area where we ended up eating a "snack"/lunch  complete with wine.  I must admit they had olives there that were incredibly good.  I'm normally not a big olive fan but these were so different from anything I had ever had before.  I couldn't believe I ate as many as I did.  They said they were grown down in the valley below and they didn't get any fresher than that.

part of the wall that protected the La Ciudad area

 I'm not to sure who this was.  But I do know there was a museum dedicated to Rainer Maria Rilke a famous Russian writer.  I don't think this was him but he was impressive anyway so I took this photo.

 We did make it into the museum so we could see this diorama of Ronda and the surrounding area.  Seeing  this helped a lot with trying to figure out what was going on. 

 While we were in Ronda I did purchase a tourist book called 'All Ronda - Collection All Spain With 134 Photographs' by Escudo De Oro with text by Jose Manuel Real Pascual. As I write this blog I must admit I've used this book quite a bit to figure out what everything is.  We have some very similar photos, but at least I know every photo here is what I personally took.
  In "All Ronda" there is not a whole lot of discussion of the geology of the area.  I'm going to quote from the book what it says "The Mountains of the Serrania De Ronda -- The Serrania de Ronda embraces parts of Malaga, Cadiz and Seville provinces.  These mountain lie at the western limits of the Cordillera Penibetica in the so-called Intrabetic depression lie such cities as Granada and Antequera.
   The Serrania De Ronda covers a vast area: to the west of Ronda includes the sierras of Libar, Castillejos, Sanquijuela and Grazalema; to the north the Sierre de las Cumbres; to the east the Sierre Hidalga, that of Los Merinos and that of the Las Nieves; and to the south the Perdiguera, Oreganal, and Cartajima ranges.  The highest point is La Torrecillia, rising to a height of almost 2,000 meters, in the Sierre de las Nieves."  
    That's it for the geology so all I get is there is a depression surrounded by mountains.  Which you could definitely see from this image.  Also note in the left hand bottom corner those little circular things in rows.  Those were pointed out to be the olive trees where they got their olives from. 

   What really impressed me was how fertile this depression was.  As we were driving to Ronda that was one thing I did notice was how sparse the vegetation was. Not so in this valley. It didn't surprise me at all that this became an economic hub in the area.  It had water, good protection and fertile lands to grow things, no wonder the Romans settled here.  But then I found out that this area had been settle long before the Romans got here.  In fact there are caves with paleolithic rock paintings going back 25,000 years ago and the Bronze age.  The place is called La Cueva de la Pileta and La Cueva del Gato. Talk about old! Here I was impressed that they had things going back 2000 years.  I really wished we had more time to go see these rock paintings.

So getting back to this incredible view.   Here to the North of the area we were seeing..

Panoramic  north view of the Guadalevin valley

 Then moving counter clockwise to the North / Northwest.

Panoramic  northwest view of the Guadalevin valley

And onto the West

Panoramic  west view of the Guadalevin valley

 And finally this is to the South.

Panoramic  south view of the Guadalevin valley

   And then this bottom picture was looking directly down at some of the roads in the area connecting the farms.

 As we were looking at this everyone was commenting upon how much it looked like a bowl.  My husband asked me if I thought this was a caldera.  I was impressed that he thought of that.  I looked at it and I said I didn't think so.  I didn't see any evidence of vulcanism.  It all looked like sedimentary to metamorphic rocks.  So then we tried to figure out what could cause such a depression.
Here's some ideas that popped into our minds.  A meteorite has struck the area.  We had been out to the Meteorite Crater out in Arizona and this just didn't have the same look to that so we ruled that out. 

 So I started to look at things again.  What I couldn't help but to notice was the layering of the rocks and that there were cobbles in the matrix of it.  Also the steep angle of the cliffs.  The normal angle of repose of rocks slopes is about 45 degrees.  These were vertical at almost 90 degrees.  That told me there has to be some coherent material holding these together.  Something like clay or silt.  So when I think of things with clay, silt and cobbles I think of glaciation.  I wonder if this ledge was once connected to a glacier at one time.
    The last thing that came to my mind that could have caused this depression is a sink hole.  I say this because of all the limestone and rock quarries we passed as we got here.  Also there the natural caves where the Paleolithic and Neolithic remains have been found. 

Now I'm trying to find out what may have caused the depression.  My biggest trouble is I don't read Spanish.  So far what little I have found out suggests that it is a giant sink hole but I still wonder about that, especially when I look again at my photos and see images like this.  With all those rounded cobbles being noticed from a distance.

    Sadly all good things must come to an end and we had to load up and head back to the hotel.  I must admit while I was traveling back I kept on thinking about those cliffs and wondered what could have formed them.

I muse:  I wish I could spend a couple of months there and really study the geology of the area.  I'm sure there so many other fascinating things to see that we just didn't have time for.