Enchanted Landscapes
Discover the Rivers and Brooks of Priego
Rivers model rocks creating deep canyons. Popular art has transformed some of the springs which provide our town with water in monuments like the Fuente del Rey, with its 139 pipes.
During your hike, from north to south and beyond the mountain pass Las Angosturas, you will find vegetable gardens surrounding the brooks Zagrilla and Salado. If you follow their riverbeds, you will cross the boundaries of the Natural Park of Sierras Subbéticas and reach the foothills of Sierra Horconera, where other brooks like Tijeras or Genilla spring up. True enchanted landscapes.
Brook Genilla
There are no fishes in the upper course of this brook because of the natural and artificial barriers. However, beyond its beautiful waterfall known as “La Nevera”, we can find barbels, orfes, and “colmillejas” (cobitis paludica). This brook joins river Zagrilla in its final stretch and is surrounded by riverside vegetation. Its water is used for irrigating vegetable gardens and quince trees.
River Salado
Waters of this river are sweet in its first stretch but become salty before they reach Priego. Near the urban area, the river is surrounded by poor riverside vegetation and has eroded slopes, used mainly for agricultural holding.
Only hereOne of the particularities of this river is the existence of a native kind of beetles which can live in salty water.
- Amphibians
- Natterjack and Iberian spadefoot toads; Perez’s, painted and parsley frogs.
- Reptiles
- Viperine snakes or Spanish pond turtles.
- Waterfowl
- Mallards, common moorhens, vanellus, little ringed plovers, dulins, common and green sandpipers and slits.
In addition, the undergrowth has an enormous wealth of flora mainly composed of white and black poplars, willows, elms, ashes, tamarisks and wild roses. They resemble a multicolour snake which reaches all its splendour in autumn, when leaves, before falling, show a full range of colours from green to yellow.