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I have put together just a few pictures from a small area of this large valley, and I hope that it gives you some idea of the beautiful area in which my wife and I have the pleasure of living in, there is such a wealth of cultures within easy reach of where we live, we will never see it all.
The ones that have been included in the following pages are marked in RED

The Valley of the Almanzora is made up of 22 municipalities between the Sierras de las Estancias, to the north, and de Filabres, to the south, where the river itself rises, crossing the Province of Almerla from west to east before reaching the sea at Villaricos (Cuevas del Almanzora).
This is a warm and loving land. Many civilisations have cultivated it throughout history, harvesting its fruits and benefiting from its goodness; the countless archaeological sites and remains of the people who lived here are proof of its long occupation.
Its great source of life is the river, often serene and slow-flowing, but when torrential rain falls it swells dangerously and can cause ruin and death along its banks; it was not in vain that the poet José Maria Martinez Alvarez de Sotomayor, born beside the river, dedicated a poem to it, which both begins and ends with this stanza:

“I listen to your roars with terror
or tread on your sands without suspicion,
always desolate and with bitter tears
get up, ay!, my nightmare from heaven “.

The towns which lie close to the River Almanzora are rich in history; in many cases this goes back to the Middle Ages and some were Roman settlements, or even earlier. Agriculture was the source of its wealth, along with the mining and dressing of marble in the river basin, and exploiting the pastures on the hillsides, which stretched down to the river.
Although the area is rich in archaeological sites, none from antiquity have so far been uncovered.
In the Middle Ages it was called the “valle de Porchena
Purchena being the only city that controlled the area; the others, Vera and Mojácar, were on the coast; it was alternatively Moslem and Christian between the 13th and 15th centuries. Ruins from these times can still be seen, most of them defensive buildings, as well as some farming and administrative sites.
The Almanzora valley and its slopes also have memories from more recent times. The landscape is full of an interesting mix of Mudejar, baroque and neoclassical monuments, to name but a few styles, which are a delight to visit.
These monuments, along with the busy economic activity and local crafts, are a symbol of the energy which has turned this area into one of the richest parts of Almería, without losing the feeling of a distinct past, which has made it what it is today, and will shape the future of its hardworking and entrepreneurial peoples.