Welcome
Welcome to the Virtual Tour of Los Yesares Visitor Centre in Sorbas, located in the very heart of the Tabernas-Sorbas sub-desert corridor, in the province of Almería, and considered the most arid space in Europe. Here, you can discover the assets of this Natural landscape within the framework of the Network of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia (RENPA).
In this centre, the visitor can find a central space where the reception and the Natural Space shop converge, where they will be attended to and where they will have the chance to buy a product or two related to the environment, and also an area with information about the Network of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia (RENPA). The building also has a meeting, exhibition and events room, where an audiovisual on the merits of the Natural Space is also screened.
The permanent exhibit invites us to discover through the tour, three natural environments of the Karst en Yesos de Sorbas Natural Landscape in Sorbas. The route begins in the arid steppe, by which it will descend by any of the more than 100 existing wells or chasms, to the cavities of the subsoil, ending the route with the visit to one of the karst springs that give origin to the Sorbas wetland.
In these links you can find more information about this Protected Natural Area with downloadable material such as trails, opening hours, how to get there, map with all the facilities for public use, etc.
Los Yesares Visitor Center: lajunta.es/3p0gv
Paraje Natural Karst en Yesos de Sorbas: lajunta.es/3sq8g
Complete your visit with ecotourism experiences with local companies. You can check the offer at the following link: ecoturismoandaluz.com
For activities aimed at the educational community, associations of people with functional diversity and local population, you can access through the link: reservatuvisita.ecoturismoandaluz.com
The terrestrial environment
At the eastern end of this valuable desert corridor, underneath the apparently barren and arid landscape, hides one of the most impressive natural beauties of Andalusia, the Karst en Yesos de Sorbas Natural Landscape covers an area of over 2,375 hectares of protected space in the municipality of Sorbas. The harsh environmental conditions experienced in this area have caused the plants to evolve into a biological world that is not only rich and diverse, but exclusive, due to its ecological importance, in the European context.
The geological origin of gypsum
Six million years ago, this territory was a warm and deep sea where a powerful formation of gypsum was deposited. In this period, the sea reached little depth, began to dry up, and it is during its evaporation, when there is a very strong precipitation of gypsum, which reached a thickness of over 100 metres, and which would later be covered by other marine sediments.
Two million years ago the sea withdrew definitively, gypsum and other sediments emerged and were exposed to dissolution by the action of rainwater. And this was the beginning of the formation of karst.
Landscape and the superficial forms
We are before one of the most developed karst gypsum sites in the world. The landscape offers numerous and curious formations on the extensive plain that constitutes the karst. They are due to dissolution phenomena of the most superficial gypsum package, and although discrete, they are the first revealing features of the Karst of Sorbas.
Despite the scarcity of water, the slow and prolonged action of the rain on the gypsum now emerged, has generated a very peculiar surface model, although it can go unnoticed if it is not observed with sufficient attention. Sinkholes, limestone formations, etc., are the superficial signs of karst.
The steppe vegetation
The permeability of the gypsum causes the rapid infiltration of the rain water in the subsoil, so that the surface landscape is consequently extremely arid. This has meant that the unique biodiversity of this place has had to develop original and complex adaptation mechanisms in order to survive both the desert and the particular composition of the gypsum in the soil.
Broom, atochares or espartales, gorse and thyme sharply dominate the landscape of the arid plain and the dry slopes of the valley. Although with the arrival of spring, the gypsum scrub offer us the possibility of enjoying authentic botanical jewels, exclusive in this natural space and that do not exist elsewhere in the world, as is the espuelilla (Chaenorrhinum glareosum), an annual plant of very fleeting life, or the Sorbas jarilla (Larrea), whose yellow flowers colour the steppe scrub with cowslip, an extremely vulnerable species also restricted to this territory. Even for a few days a year it is possible to appreciate the beauty of the daffodil of Sorbas (Narcissus tortifolius), an endemic plant, exclusive of this natural area and in danger of extinction.
Many forms of life in this natural space are, therefore, unique to this place, which makes it especially valuable.
The animals of the steppe and crags
There is a high diversity of fauna in the steppe, although animal populations are not very abundant. The arid Mediterranean climate and the sparse vegetation of thyme and espartales, constitute the ideal habitat for one of the most emblematic species of the south-eastern peninsula that inhabits this place: the spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca). This species is in grave danger of extinction. Its last populations are restricted to enclaves in Almeria and Murcia, one of them the Karst en Yesos de Sorbas Natural Landscape.
Rocky crags and slopes are environments that offer an ideal refuge for birds and mammals. Increasingly scarce predators, such as the fox, badger, weasel and genet, also find safe refuge in the recesses of large gypsum blocks under the cornice. Birds of prey like the Bonelli's eagle, the falcon or the kestrel inhabit the crags.
The underground world
A unique subterranean world
It is an underground world carved by the millennial action of the rainwater on the powerful gypsum rock, generating one of the greatest subterranean spectacles in the world: chasms, wells, halls, galleries, recrystallisation of multiple forms,... they create a fantastic universe within reach of our senses.
More than 1,000 caves are known to date, making it one of the most important gypsum karst sites in the world for its size, quantity, variety and quality of the karst formations it houses. It therefore has an enormous educational and scientific value, as well as being of great speleological interest, both in the scientific and in the sporting aspects.
The underground karst is also life, which is very special and adapted to the dark conditions of the cave. Its most illustrious inhabitants are bats, harmless animals and extraordinarily beneficial. The caverns were also home and refuge to our ancestors about 6,000 years ago, in the Copper age.
Forms of dissolution, caves and galleries
The water, after infiltrating, slowly begins to dissolve the gypsum rock generating a complex network of underground galleries. The caves are formed from the galleries by dissolution of the walls and by the hanging blocks of walls and ceilings.
The Cueva del Agua (water cave) system, at almost 8,500 metres long, is the largest subterranean cave system Spain in gypsum (yet discovered). In this system, as in others in Sorbas, it is possible to find a true display of very different galleries and halls.
Forms of growth: speleothems
The water infiltrates and dissolves the gypsum, it becomes saturated and crystallises in extremely fragile forms circulating through the incipient galleries and halls dissolving the gypsum rock. Ceilings, walls and floors of caves and galleries are covered with a multitude of gypsum crystals of whimsical shapes and colours, such as gypsum boluses, mushroom stalagmites, lattice-like formations,...
Karst: source of water and life
The karst formations act as a huge sponge, collecting and storing all the rainwater, which then comes out through upwelling points, like the Cueva del Agua cave. These are karst springs, source of water and fertility especially in a sub desert environment like that of Sorbas.
The cave fauna
Some very particular animals inhabit the caverns, adapted to living without light. The most unique are undoubtedly bats that have developed a system of emission and reception of sound waves to navigate and locate their prey. All their species are protected.
Humans and the caves of Sorbas: First settlers, art and customs
The inhabitants of the caves of Sorbas left behind testimonies of their presence: food, utensils, tombs and burial goods, etc. Thanks to these items we can know them a little better. They used these caves as a refuge during the Neolithic period in the Copper Age, a period characterised by the discovery of metals. In this exhibition you can discover how our ancestors lived here.
The village of Sorbas is located scarcely two kilometres from the Nature Reserve. It is built on a small plain cut by the current ravine of the Aguas river and an old abandoned meander. The adaptation to this unusual topography has resulted in the characteristic location of its houses overhanging the ravine surrounding the village. The urban layout is typically Arabic, with a maze of slopes and white alleyways.
The traditional craftwork of Sorbas has survived for centuries In the "Barrio de la Alfarería" (pottery quarter) there are still Arabic wood-fuelled kilns where high quality clay pots are still fired. The local gastronomy is rich and varied: migas (fried breadcrumbs with garlic), gachas or gurullos (flour cooked with bacon or liver), ajipan or ajo colorado (garlic stew coloured with paprika), cocido de trigo (meat stew with wheat), and typical local desserts will undoubtedly delight the visitor.
The wetland
In contrast to the sub desert environment, the water channel and the karst springs of Los Molinos generate a true oasis, a humid ecosystem where aquatic fauna such as the pond turtle or the redfish coexist surrounded by the extreme arid conditions of the steppe
Life in the river
In the exhibition you can discover the return of rainwater from the underground world to the outside through the karst springs and that originates some conditions of moisture in the valley, which enables the appearance of a rich biological diversity (riverbank vegetation, aquatic fauna,...) that contrasts strongly with the arid conditions of the environment. It has an "oasis" effect in a sub desert environment. These wetlands associated with karst are also of exceptional environmental value due to their rarity in this territory.
Los Molinos spring: source of the wetland
The discharge of the stored rainwater until reaching the lowest point of the karst in the Aguas river canyon gives rise to some abundant springs: those of Los Molinos del Río Aguas springs.
The constant presence of water in an arid environment produces an "oasis" effect and generates a wetland of great ecological importance.
The water and its uses
Los Molinos del Rio Aguas takes its name from the abandoned water-driven flour mills at the bottom of the ravine, directly below the springs. Here, from as long ago as the Arab period, crops of olives, cereals and grains were milled for the region.
The Arabs, who were expert engineers, improved water flow from the springs by excavating tunnels or galleries in the compact gypsum rock. These continued with a system of ditches or structures, which conducted the water to the water mill and from there to the orchards on the fertile terraces along the river.
Wetland vegetation
Past the canyon, the valley widens and water runs faster. Sediments are deposited on the banks making the soil thicker. Larger plant communities grow here, distributed in parallel bands along the river in riverbank woodlands, such as white poplar, canota, giant reed and oleanders.
The aquatic life
The flora and fauna of the wetland contrasts sharply with the steppe landscape of the karst plain and its arid environment. Its luxuriance and the high variety of aquatic organisms are very different to those that inhabit the steppe and provide the place with great ecological value due to its high biological diversity, welcoming inhabitants as diverse as molluscs, insects, amphibians or reptiles to numerous species of birds such as the warbler, nightingale, pollock, kingfisher, common redfish,...