Download the map of the Geopark
The Cabo de Gata-Níjar Geopark is located in Andalusia at the southeastern margin of the Almería province (Spain), flanked by the Mediterranean Sea on the right and surrounded by the municipalities of Níjar, Carboneras and Almería.
Being part of one of the most important protected areas of Andalusia, the geopark covers and area of 354 km2 of terrestrial domains and 120,12 km2 of marine protected area (total protected area of 49.152 h). Three municipalities and 27 villages are included inside the territory and linked by the regional roads which crosses it. Its best access is by E-15 which connects with A-92 state highway. The population of the geopark largely depends on seasonality, reaching its maximum in the summer (6.000 hab) but much less the rest of the year.
Its principal singularity lies in its climatology, a subdesertic mediterranean climate, in which ten months per year are rated as arid. A low precipitation range and temperatures between 22-15º C configures one of the most peculiar areas of the Andalusian region. Indeed, its 63 km of cliffs, conforms the best conserved of the Spanish mediterranean coastline and its volcanic and arid nature points it as one of the most important protected areas of the whole european continent.
On 17 November 2015, the UNESCO member states at the General Conference ratified the statutes of the new International Geosciences and Geoparks Program, legally approving the new UNESCO World Geopark label.
In addition to belonging to the European and Global Network of Geoparks since 2006 (670 Kb), other protected areas fall under this category as a natural park declared in 1987, the Special Conservation Area (SAC) and the Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA). Together with this, in 1990, the Cabo de Gata Salinas are registered in the international list of Ramsar wetlands and in 1995 the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Marine Reserve is declared. UNESCO in 1997 declares this space as a Biosphere Reserve and the United Nations recognizes Cabo de Gata-Níjar in 1999 as one of the Specially Protected Areas of Importance for the Mediterranean (SPAIM).
The Natural Park is accredited by the EUROPARC Federation with the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (CETS) since September 2008.
Come to know the natural wealth that the Geopark of Cabo de Gata-Níjar offers to all its visitors. A great floristic and faunistic diversity, is a space where the geological history appears in the terrestrial and marine.
Inhabited from the Neolithic period, this area offers cultural remains of civilizations as remote as the Tartessos and Phoenicians, to the remains of our closest ancestors with their vestiges of mills and farmhouses.
Know your past to understand the present and build your future.
- Address and phone number of the protected area: C/ Fundición, s/n. Rodalquilar 04.115 - Níjar (Almería).
- Email: pncabogatanijar.dtal.cagpds@juntadeandalucia.es