Tabernas Desert
Spain · Andalusia · 400 m
Description
The Tabernas Desert (Desierto de Tabernas) is the driest corner of continental Europe and the closest thing the continent has to a true desert, although strictly it is a semi-arid badland of eleven thousand hectares that takes rather less than two hundred and fifty millimetres of rain a year. Wind and flash floods have cut the soft marls into ravines and flat-topped ridges that stand almost bare of plants, and in the nineteen sixties Sergio Leone and the producers who followed him recognised the landscape as Arizona at a fraction of the price. More than a hundred films were shot on the two sets that survive out here, among them A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Magnificent Seven, and later Lawrence of Arabia and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Fort Bravo and Oasys MiniHollywood still stand as working western towns with staged shootouts, and the same clear dry air that suited the cameras now powers Europe's largest solar research station on the plateau above.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 to 2 days (optimal 1 day)
Travel season
Best time to visit: April – May or October
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Badlands ravines of the Paraje Natural
- Fort Bravo Texas Hollywood western town
- Oasys MiniHollywood and its staged shootout
- Spaghetti western filming locations in the ravines
- Almería(Day trip)
- Tabernas castle above the town
- Solar research towers on the plateau
- Desert road across the marl ridges
- Night skies over the badlands