Some of the names of towns in Andalucia come from it´s frontier past between Christians and Muslums. Established in the 13th century, the frontier between Castilla and the Reino Nazari of Granada oscillated.

This route through the mountainous region of Cadiz and Malaga that descends toward Gibraltar, presents one of it´s most stirring flanks that the book "Battle of the Straight" was named after. Olvera is a medieval stamp: a small village crammed in the hillside with the church emerging from the highest slope surrounded by the castles.

A few kilometers away, near Alcalá del Valle, sit the languished ruins of a converted Fransiscan Convent (16th C.).

The powerful Ronda conserves the remains of its wall. The castles of Ataje and Benadalid today are cemetaries, like the defensive bastiones of Gaucin, Jimena and Castellar, summoning you from the high ridge.

Near Castellar, a small muralled town, the ancient remains of the convent Almoraima still exist. And in Tarifa, facing Africa, stands the castle Guzmán el Bueno (11th C.), which evokes the legendary feat of the castellan, who preferred sacrifing his child over surrender.