 Rolling green hills give way to high mountain passes and cool white villages sitting at the feet of ancient castles and deep forbidding valleys hidden from the eyes of civilization.
The province of Cádiz possesses a huge variety of views, sounds and experiences from golden beaches on the southern coast to high lonely mountains where the only sound is the swish of a rotor blade playing in the strong easterly winds or the desolate sound of an eagle seeking its prey.
These limestone mountains, green fields and beaches have been witness to some of history’s defining events and the unspoiled highways will surely tax and satisfy even the most demanding walker.
It was here, on the coast of Cádiz where the Arabic invaders first touched land starting an adventure and occupation that lasted more than 700 years and whose reign was only broken by perhaps the even more fanatic armies of the Christian Kings led by Isabel of Castille and Fernando of Aragón.
 Today the zone is peppered with white washed villages whose names still reflect the course of the war between Muslim and Christian.
All those towns with “wotsit de la Frontera” denote the boundary zone between the two warring factions, a war that lasted for hundreds of years and resulted in defeat for the Moors in the year 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered America and thereby opening up the Golden Age for the Spanish Empire.
With stunning views that literally take the breath away, the province of Cádiz is the proud possessor of mountains that appear to touch the sky, or chains of almost untouched white-washed villages that lie like a discarded string of peals on the landscape.
It is here that Spain’s traditional values are perhaps best preserved; an observation that is as deceptive as it is evocative, because it is also here that Spain’s embrace of Europeanization has perhaps been most obvious. Hundreds of business parks dot landscapes near large populations.
The main towns such as Algeciras and Tarif and Cádiz itself are running towards the future with open arms and are welcoming modern high-tech businesses to relocate to perhaps one of the most fortunate places in the world.
Cádiz is also the province of Spain where the most rain falls. In the eastern part of the province in particular the perennially green hills are evidence of the volume of water that is preserved in reservoirs and underground.
 Cádiz is infinite and there’s something here for everyone from relaxing on golden beaches with fine white sand to walking in high desolate mountains with superlative views of flocks rare black vultures and endless horizons.
And if it's history or culture that is important there are well preserved monuments from just about every period of recorded human history; Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoth, Arabs and, latterly, Christian, have all left their mark for us to enjoy today.
All this and huge areas of land that have been preserved as natural parks and intimate views of the Atlas mountains scarcely 15 kilometres from mainland Spain make Cádiz a destination worth visiting again and again.
More information: http://www.cadiz.org/
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