Ronda

A stone bridge completed in 1793, built up from the floor of the gorge to link the old and new towns. A small chamber above the central arch once served as a jail and is now a little exhibit on how the bridge was built, reached down a stair.

Opened in 1785; tradition holds that the rules of modern bullfighting on foot took shape here with the Romero family. On days without a fight you may walk the sand, stands and harness museum, and early September brings a fight held in Goya-era dress.

Islamic-era baths in the old streamside quarter below the gorge, their vaults pierced with star-shaped openings to let in light. A waterwheel that lifted water into the next room has been restored. It is a long walk downhill from the old town.

The mansion stays shut; visitors get just its garden plus a stair inside the rock. Cut into the cliff in the fourteenth century, it descends to the river, and slaves are said to have hauled water up it under siege. Climbing back is far harder.

Gardens stepped down the slope along the lip of the gorge, named for the twinning with Cuenca, another cliff town. Roses fill each terrace, and one spot gives an angled side view of the Puente Nuevo.

From Plaza de Maria Auxiliadora a dirt track drops towards the gorge floor to the classic spot for looking up at the Puente Nuevo. Going down takes about twenty minutes; the return climb has no shade, so skip it around noon in summer.

A mansion said to have housed an Islamic-era ruler, now the town museum. Past a few tiled courtyards a small garden clings to the cliff edge, and beyond the railing the western plain lies far below.

A small arched bridge downstream from the Puente Nuevo, set where the gorge grows shallower, once the road through the walls. From it the stream inside the gorge lies below, and past the Philip V gate opposite a lane climbs into the old town.

A village twenty minutes' drive from Ronda, its houses built under rock overhangs carved by the river, so the rock serves as roof. The sunny-side and shady-side lanes even have different names, and bars and restaurants line the shaded one.

A cave where Stone Age people painted fish, horses and goats; the family that found it in 1905 still runs the tours. With no electric light, small groups go in by hand-held lamp, so it needs booking; inside it is cool with a slippery floor.

Built where the main mosque stood, after the Christian capture of 1485; just inside, a mihrab arch survives with its Arabic lettering. The bell tower's base reuses the minaret, and the two-storey front balcony was a grandstand for events in the square.

A shady nineteenth-century park beside the bullring, ending abruptly at a cliff on its west side. Iron-railed lookout balconies jut out over the drop, with the plain and far mountains hundreds of metres below. Those rails draw the biggest crowd towards sunset.

A thirteenth-century Islamic-era gate guarding the southern approach to the old town, three horseshoe arches strung between towers. Just inside, Espiritu Santo church was begun by the Catholic Monarchs after taking the city. Unlike the bridge side, it is calm.

A lone fourteenth-century minaret in a small old town square, all that is left after a mosque became a church and the church itself was pulled down. Stone below, brick above, the belfry on top added in Christian times. Seen from outside only.

A white village inside the Sierra de Grazalema natural park, west of Ronda, often named Spain's rainiest spot. A mill at its entrance still weaves wool blankets the old way, and nearby trails reach groves of Spanish fir, which grows wild only in these ranges.

White houses cling to a rocky peak topped by a Nasrid-era castle tower, a turquoise reservoir spread below. The stony path up takes about twenty minutes, with scant cover from the sun. Plenty of visitors pair it with Grazalema on a circuit from Ronda.