Sierra de Montánchez is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in the greater Montes de Toledo range,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is named after nearby Montánchez town, the capital of the Tierra de Montánchez comarca, located on its slopes. This range gives its name to the Mancomunidad Integral Sierra de Montánchez. This mountain range separates the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Name T ...

to the north from the basin of the

Guadiana The Guadiana River ( , , , ) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the e ...

to the south. The main rivers that have their sources in this range are the Salor and Tamuja, a tributary of the Almonte, flowing towards the Tagus, as well as the Aljucén River, a tributary of the

Description

The Sierra de Montánchez stretches for about 33 km in a NE/SW direction west of the Sierra de Villuercas and is relatively lower than the latter. It rises towards the south of Cáceres Province, in the center of the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

. Its highest point is 995 m high Monte Viejo, also known as Montancil or Monte Tances. There is a road leading to the Monte Viejo mountaintop where there is a

cellular repeater A cellular repeater (also known as cell phone signal booster or cell phone signal amplifier) is a type of bi-directional amplifier used to improve cell phone reception. A cellular repeater system commonly consists of a donor Antenna (radio), anten ...

antenna and an attached building. At the 955 m high Cancho Blanco summit there is a weather surveillance radar. The ''Castillo de Montánchez'', a castle built during the times of

Moorish Spain Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

is located on a 741 m high hillock above Montánchez town. Besides Montánchez, Alcuéscar, Arroyomolinos and Zarza de Montánchez are other important towns in the area.

Shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

is prevalent in the areas covered with natural vegetation. There are also scattered patches of forested zones, sometimes planted with non-native species such as

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

Geology

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

s and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

s are predominant in the area. Rankers, subhumid in the northern and dry in the southern slopes, have developed over

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

in the mountains.Eduardo Hernández Pacheco, ''Estudio Geológico de la Sierra de Montánchez'', 1896

References

External links

Sierra de Montánchez - Tourism

Estudio geológico y gravimétrico de los granitoides de la antiforma de Cáceres

Museo de Geología de Extremadura
Geography of the Province of Cáceres Montanchez Mountain ranges of Extremadura {{extremadura-geo-stub