Llanos de los Olivares

In Gorafe and forming a part of the "Desierto de Gorafe" Geo-Route, Los Llanos de los Olivares stretch from the edge of the canyon where the Megalithic Park is located to the Baúl stream at Los Balcones. In terms of landscape, you can see that Los Llanos is one of the many, spectacular sedimentary plains (glacis) formed by the erosion of rocks in the Sierra de Baza, which descends with a gentle slope to the centre of the hollow.

The uniqueness of this sector of plain is owed to the fact it is sheltered by a small, wooded pasture, which is like a botanical island in the arid expanse and which contains a Mediterranean wood formed by the original vegetation of autochthonous pine and oak forests currently made the most of for farming and livestock breeding. This is an agrosilvopastoral ecosystem derived from the human activity stemming from the forest of holm, cork and, in this case, pine trees too (Pinus halepensis), which in turn was a consequence of conquering the forest in order to dedicate land to meadows. During its initial phase the dense forest thins out to a second phase where the woody vegetation is controlled and pastures are stabilised.

The pasture or dehesa is, apart from an attractive natural element, an ecosystem with great biodiversity. Its most symbolic species in terms of birdlife is the booted eagle (Hieratus pennatus).