1927 | declared a (Site of Natural Interest) by the Central Board of National Parks after the XIV International Congress of Geology. |
1988 | declared a natural park. |
2006 | designated to the Global Geopark Network. |
2015 | designated a UNESCO Global Geopark. |
The Parque natural de las Sierras Subbéticas (Sierras Subbéticas Natural Park) is located in the heart of Andalusia, in the southern part of the province of Córdoba. As the name says it’s a mountain ridge, the Sierras Subbéticas (Subbetic Mountains). The most abundant rocks are massive limestones, with thin sections of dolomites, marly limestones, and marls. They are of Jurassic and Cretaceous ages, as the area was successively emerged in the Triassic, submerged in the Jurassic to emerge again in the Cenozoic. During the Oligocene and Miocene folding and later the thrusting took place. The area is karstified and has numerous karst features, vast areas of karren, uvalas, poljes, and numerous caves.
The area is drained by the Genil river in the south and the Guadajoz river in the north. They are fed by resurgences, karst springs, at the foot of the mountain range.
The Sierras Subbéticas Geopark was approved as UNESCO World Geopark in 2008 and is mostly a series of limestone hills and mountain ridges, uplifted during the Alpine orogeny. The limestone is karstified, and there are numerous caves, gorges, sinkholes, and poljes. The cave cadastre of the park contains more than 700 caves.