Los Vélez is a corner of Almería that most visitors to the coast never see: a high, dry country of pine forest, almond groves and pale limestone peaks, with the Sierra de María rising above two thousand metres. The Lavadero Tello, the washing place at Tello, is on the edge of that mountain land, near María and Vélez-Blanco, and the shelters of the area hold some of the most famous paintings in southern Spain. At the Cueva de los Letreros, near Vélez-Blanco, a small figure with outstretched arms holding a rainbow-like shape is the Indalo, adopted as the symbol of Almería and painted on houses across the province.
The paintings belong to the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, listed by UNESCO in 1998. As elsewhere, shelters are small and delicate, and access is managed, so ask locally before you go. Vélez-Blanco itself is dominated by a Renaissance castle built in the early sixteenth century by the Marquis of Los Vélez, with a famous courtyard that was sold and shipped to Paris in 1904, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, while a plaster copy stands in the castle.
María is a tiny town of around fifteen hundred people, and Vélez-Blanco has about two thousand. Fuel and supplies are best bought in Vélez Rubio, about twenty kilometres away, which is the bigger local centre. The area is known for its bread, game, hams and almonds, and in February the almond blossom is a sight. The Sierra de María-Los Vélez natural park protects the pine and juniper woods and a rich flora.
For riding, the mountain roads are a delight: smooth, quiet, with long open bends and views over the plateau. Wind can be strong on the ridge, and winter brings snow and ice. In summer, days are hot and dry, but evenings are cool at altitude. Late spring and autumn are most pleasant, and the star-filled skies at night are some of the clearest in Spain.