250px, Bridge over the Río Poqueira The Poqueira is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

in La

Alpujarra The Alpujarra (, Arabic: ''al-bussarat'') is a natural and historical region in Andalusia, Spain, on the south slopes of the Sierra Nevada and the adjacent valley. The average elevation is above sea level. It extends over two provinces, ...

region in the province of Granada, in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is formed by the confluence of streams that rise near the summit of

Mulhacén Mulhacén (), with an elevation of , is the highest mountain in peninsular Spain and in all of the Iberian Peninsula. It is part of the Sierra Nevada range in the Cordillera Penibética. It is named after Abu l-Hasan Ali, known as ''Muley Hac� ...

, the highest peak of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The river cuts through a dramatic gorge, then joins the Río Trevélez shortly before flowing into the Río Guadalfeo. Near the confluence there is a hydro-electric station, with the associated abandoned settlement of La Cebadilla, built to house the workers. At Pampaneira, near the bridge by which the main road from

Órgiva Órgiva is a Spanish town municipality in comarca of Alpujarra Granadina (which is located within the larger Alpujarras region) in the province of Granada, Andalusia. It has a population of around 6,000 and lies in the Alpujarra valley between the ...

and

Lanjarón Lanjarón is a municipality and town in the Alpujarras area in the province of Granada in Andalusia, Spain. Lanjarón has a ruined castle and chalybeate baths. This spa town is most famous, however, for its eponymous bottled water company, the ...

crosses the river, there is another hydro-electric installation, and just before the Poqueira river joins the Trevélez, at the narrowest point, there is a third - deep in the gorge and invisible from above. High on the eastern side lie the villages of

Capileira Capileira is the highest and most northerly of the three villages in the gorge of the Poqueira river in the La Alpujarra district of the province of Granada, in Spain. It is located at latitude 36° 57' N and longitude 3° 21' W, about 1 km ...

Bubión Bubión is a village in Las Alpujarras region of Granada in Spain. It is located at latitude 36° 57' N, longitude 3° 21' W, at 1,350 metres above sea level. Its postal code is 18412. Together with Capileira (to the north) and Pampaneira (to th ...

and Pampaneira which have become noted touristic attractions: they are of Moorish origin, with narrow, winding streets, flat roofs, characteristic chimney-pots... On the hillsides the terraces created by the Moors can still be seen, though now they mostly lie uncultivated, and the channels also built by the Moors still bring water to the villages and terraces. The higher part of the valley lies within the Sierra Nevada National Park, the lower part within a Natural Park; and the valley with its villages has been declared a "Conjunto Historico". The Poqueira valley was the scene of the first major battle in the second "Morisco" rebellion, in January 1569. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

of 1936-39, the villages remained under Nationalist control, though Republican guerrilla fighters controlled the heights of the Sierra Nevada, and the frontier during most of the war lay just above the villages.

Bibliography

*''Bubión - the story of an Alpujarran village'', by Michael Tracy (Hermitage Books, 2013, ). Follow-up comments of the author are found at https://web.archive.org/web/20130516195101/http://alpujarrabubion.net/ (retrieved 2014-08-18). *''Bubión en el centro del Poqueira'', by Juan Pérez Ramón (2011). *''Capileira de Poqueira'', by Miguel Estévez Callejon (1995). *''Pampaneira en la Alpujarra'', by Tomás Martín Cifuentes (2009).

Bibliography

See also