Costa del Sol Towns

Sierra Nevada National Park

Sierra Nevada is a mountain range belonging to the Beticas, specifically to the systems of Penibetico, located in Andalusia, Spain, stretching across the central-southeast province of Granada and the southwestern province of Almeria.

In 1986 it was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. In 1999 much of its territory was declared a National Park for its botanical values and natural landscape. It is the highest mountain in all of Western Europe after the Alps, with the Mulhacen Peak, the peak of the Iberian Peninsula, being 3482 m.

Sierra Nevada, along with Beticas, was formed during the Alpine orogeny in the Tertiary. Because of its isolation and altitude, since the end of the Wurm Glaciation, the mountain has become a refuge for many endemic plants and latitudes in the Mediterranean. According to sources from the Ministry of Environment of Spain, there are 66 endemic vascular plant species and 80 animal species.

Location and Characteristics

Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Cordillera Penibetica, which spans the central-southeast province of Granada and the southwestern province of Almeria in Spain. It is isolated by Lecrin Valley to the west, the valley Guadalfeo to the south, the Betica depression to the north, the Gergal corridor to the east, and Valley Andarax to the southeast.

The geographic coordinates are: 36º 55'37º 15' N and 2º 56'3º 38' west longitude. Sierra Nevada has a length of nearly 80 km, its width varies between 15 and 30 km, and its surface is over 2000 km².

Most of its length is within the Sierra Nevada National Park, occupying a total of 86,210 hectares; another 86,000 hectares has natural park surroundings. Within this park is the Observatory of Sierra Nevada and the ski resort situated to the south of Europe, known for its mild temperatures and abundant hours of sun.

The Sierra Nevada Observatory is located on the northern slope at 2800 m high. In 1935 a road was opened leading to the summit of Veleta Peak. The stretch leading to the Veleta peak was closed to traffic in 1989 and until then was considered the highest road in Europe.

 

Within Sierra Nevada is Mulhacen Peak, the highest peak on the Iberian Peninsula, with 3482 m of altitude, and the Pico del Veleta, the third in height at 3392 m, after Aneto in the Pyrenees.

The north face of the mountain is the birthplace of many of the rivers in the basin of the Guadalquivir River. Among rivers born here are Nacimento (tributary of Andarax) Fardes and the river Genil, the most important of rivers in the west and south sides from the Mediterranean.

The Rio Durcal or izbor, Trevelez, Poqueira, tax Guadalfeo are also born in the mountains, and the rivers Adra and Andarax have their tributaries in the mountains. On the same side are most of the nearly 50 high mountain lakes in Sierra Nevada, many of which give birth to rivers and streams.

Much of the environment, especially above 2,400 m (which corresponds to the limit of the snowline to the advent of the Holocene period), has been shaped by the former presence of glaciers, leading to countless high mountain lakes, especially on the south side of the mountains, and valleys in the form of “U.”