The River That Carved the Valley — Mirador del Valle del Río Galera – Mirador de Juan Badlands

Before rivers carved their channels, a large closed basin held the waters flowing from the nearby mountain ranges. The ancient Lake Baza stretched across it, where many of the sediments that now form the hills accumulated. Geological panels date the beginning of the formation of the present-day valley to approximately half a million years ago. The drainage of water into the external river network and subsequent erosion gradually emptied and shaped those deposits.

The terrain is also crossed by the Galera Fault, about thirty kilometres long. This fracture moves mainly horizontally and has influenced the evolution of the landform. Runoff carved grooves and gullies into the more easily eroded materials, forming the landscape of ravines and ridges known as badlands. Beside them, the vega reveals land used for cultivation.

Activate the augmented reality experience now: you will see a reconstruction of the ancient landscape with the lake and be able to compare it with the present-day panorama. Then look at the valley again and search for traces of this transformation.