Antequera

Antequera

Antequera proved to be just the right sort of place we had been looking for.  It is a very ancient town of about 45,000 people.  It is rightly called “the heart of Andalucía” because it is virtually at the crossroads of that beautiful land.  After seeing it we decided to stay there for three days.

We stayed in a small hotel in the historic district.  From our window we could look out and see the alcazaba above us and hear the church bells from a nearby church (there are 32 of them in Antequera) chime the quarter hours and toll out the hours. 

It was a great place for strolling around.  The buildings are all white, as is the case with many Spanish towns in this area.  The town is surrounded by some very unusual rock formations.  One of the largest, and visible from most of the town, is shaped like the head of a woman lying facing the sky.  

Near the edge of town are some ancient burial mounds.  These megalithic tombs, called Dolmens, are made of rock and covered with tons of soil.  They date back to around 2,500 BCE.  Barbara found it interesting that they are aligned, not with some celestial object, but with the strange rock formation we mentioned.  Apparently that rock had some significance to those people.  It certainly looked dramatic to us.
 

After getting some necessary “down time” to rest and renew ourselves we visited the local Plaza de Toros (no bulls, no fighting while we were there, just interesting shapes to see).  We then decided we were ready to hit the big city again.  Off to Granada for our next stop.