Andalucia

Andalucia is the southernmost territory of Spain and the part of the Iberian Peninsula that is most quintessentially Spanish. The popular image of Spain as a land of bullfights, flamenco, sherry and ruined castles derives from this spectacularly beautiful region. The influences that have washed over Andalucia since the first paintings were etched on cave walls here more than twenty-five thousand years ago are many - Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and Vandals all came and left their mark. The most influential invaders of them all, the Moors, who ruled the region for seven centuries and named it al-Andalus, have left an enduring imprint on Andalucian culture and customs.

From the sight and sound of Flamenco, the colour and sheer energy of the regions countless and legendary Fiestas, to the Romerias - wild and semi-religious pilgrimages to honour local saints at country shrines are yet another excuse for a jamboree. In quieter moments there are few greater pleasures than to join the drinkers at a local bar winding down over a glass of traditional Fino while nibbling tapas - Andalucia's great culinary invention.

Few places in the world can boast such a wealth of natural wonders in so compact a space. The mighty Guadalquivir River, which crosses and irrigates the region from its source in the Cazorla mountains of Jaen in the northeast, reaches the sea 400 kilometres away at the dune-fringed beaches and marismas of the Coto Donana National Park, Europe's largest and most important wild life sanctuary.

To the east and towering above Granada, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada include the Spanish peninsulas highest mountain, snow-capped for most the year, while 30 kilometres away and close to the sweltering beaches, sugar canes rise. Nestling in the folds of the same mountains are the valleys of Alpujarras, a wildly picturesque region dotted with dozens of mountain villages many of them little changed since Moorish times.

Further east again come the Gulch-ridden badlands and lunar landscapes of Almeria's deserts, sought out by filmmakers and astronomers for the clearest skies in Europe. On the coast extending to the west of Malaga is the Costa del Sol.

Travel further both east and west along the coast and you will find some of the best beaches in all Spain along the Costa de la Luz, near Cadiz of the Costa de Almeria.