HIDDEN GEMS:HIDDEN BEHIND Spain's snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains is a paradise that in the 16th century was the last bastion of the Moors on the Iberian peninsula. They called it Al-Bajara, the Highlands, and cared for it as though it were Eden, writes Maurice Cashell.
Today in Alpujarra the Moorish influence is still evident in the irrigation systems used in the intensive terraced farming and in the architecture of the villages, where white box-shaped houses cling to the slopes of the barrancos.
The mulberry trees and the silk industry of the Moors are gone, but in small towns such as Capileira, Bubión and Pampaneira red peppers and tomatoes are dried on the flat clay roofs, among the chimney pots.
To enjoy this earthly paradise it is necessary to walk. Trippers come and buy rugs (above), cured ham and Contraviesa wine and run away with images collected effortlessly on digital cameras.
But this is a hard country. The ground - limestone alternating with dolomite, slate and clay - makes a hard base for the terraces and retaining walls, created during the time of the Moors. Generation after generation worked the land in adverse conditions with few resources. A country of resistance against floods and storms, poverty and Catholics.
There is a mountain pass called the Moor's Last Sigh. Boabdil, the last Muslim king of Grenada, and his court are said to have crossed it after being ejected from Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. It is named to describe the moment when he sighed while looking back and longing for his palaces, in particular the Alhambra, an act that moved his mother to whip him with the famous "Now you weep like a woman over what you could not defend as a man".
It's that kind of tough place. Walk it.
Maurice Cashell is chairman of the Labour Relations Commission
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