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 thecentral-southeast province of Granada and the southwestern province of Almeria.

In 1986 it was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. In1999 much of its territory was declared a National Park for its botanicalvalues and natural landscape. It is the highest mountain in all of WesternEurope after the Alps, with the Mulhacen Peak, the peak of the Iberian Peninsula, being 3482 m.

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

Location and Characteristics

Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the CordilleraPenibetica, which spans the central-southeast provinceof Granada and the southwestern province of Almeriain Spain.It is isolated by Lecrin Valley to the west, thevalley Guadalfeo to the south, the Betica depression to the north, the Gergal corridorto the east, and Valley Andarax to the southeast.

The geographic coordinates are: 36º 55′37º 15′ N and 2º56′3º 38′ west longitude. Sierra Nevadahas a length of nearly 80 km, its width varies between 15 and 30 km, and itssurface 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 parksurroundings. Within this park is the Observatory of Sierra Nevada and the skiresort situated to the south of Europe, knownfor its mild temperatures and abundant hours of sun.

The Sierra Nevada Observatory is located on the northernslope 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 untilthen was considered the highest road in Europe.

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

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

The Rio Durcal or izbor, Trevelez, Poqueira, tax Guadalfeoare also born in the mountains, and the rivers Adra and Andarax have theirtributaries in the mountains. On the same side are most of the nearly 50 highmountain lakes in Sierra Nevada, many of whichgive birth to rivers and streams.

Much of the environment, especially above 2,400 m (whichcorresponds 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 highmountain lakes, especially on the south side of the mountains, and valleys inthe form of “U.”