Fig. 148.—THE BASINS OF THE GUADIANA AND GUADALQUIVIR.
Scale 1 : 3,000,000.
The mountains which shut in the basin of Andalusia on the east are cut up by deep river gorges into several distinct masses or chains, of which the Calar del Mundo (5,437 feet), Yelmo de Segura (5,925 feet), and Sierra Sagra (7,675 feet) are the principal. The southern mountain ranges uniformly extend from east to west. From north to south we cross in succession the Sierras de María (6,690 feet), de las Estancias, and de los Filabres (6,283 feet), so famous for its marbles. In the west the latter two ranges join the Sierra de Baza (6,236 feet), itself attached to the great culminating range of Iberia, the Sierra Nevada, by a saddle of inconsiderable height (2,950 feet). {396}
The Sierra Nevada consists mainly of schists, through which eruptions of serpentine and porphyry have taken place. The area it occupies is small, but from whatever side we approach it rises precipitously, and the eye can trace the succeeding zones of vegetation up to that of perennial snows pierced by the peaks of Mulahacen (11,661 feet), Picacho de la Veleta (11,386 feet), and Alcazaba (7,590 feet). Vines and olive-trees clothe the foot-hills; to these succeed walnut-trees, then oaks, and finally a pale carpet of turf hidden beneath snow for six months. Masses of snow accumulate in sheltered hollows, and these ventisqueros, ventiscas, or snow-drifts, supply Granada with ice. In the Corral de la Veleta there even exists a true glacier, which gives birth to the river Genil, and is the most southerly in all Europe. The more extensive glaciers of a former age have disappeared long ago. To the purling streams fed by the snows of the sierra the Vega of Granada owes its rich verdure, its flowers, and its excellent fruits, and the delightful valley of Lecrin its epithet of “Paradise of the Alpujarras.”
Fig. 149.—THE PASS OF DESPEÑAPERROS.
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No other district of Spain so forcibly reminds us of the dominion of the Moors. The principal summit is named after a Moorish prince. On the Picacho they lit a beacon on the approach of a Christian army, and in the Alpujarras, on the southern slope, they pastured their sheep. The Galician and Asturian peasants, who now occupy this district, are superior in no respect to the converted Moors who were permitted to remain at Ujijar, the capital of Alpujarras, when their compatriots were driven forth. The natural riches of the mountains remain undeveloped, and they are surrounded by a belt of despoblados.
Fig. 150.—THE SIERRA NEVADA AS SEEN FROM BAZA.