Tàrbena occupies a strategic position on the spine of mountains that divides the Valencian coastal plain into north and south. For millennia the principal route linking the cities of Alicante and Valencia passed over this natural barrier close to the village.
For this reason the traces of Spain's earliest colonisers are to be found on today's walk including an Iberian settlement and the ruins of a Moorish village and castle.
Shown right are cave paintings typical of the area. We will travel through time from the first Palaeolithic settlers to the most recent arrivals.
Some of the earliest traces of human settlement comes from the bronze age Iberian culture. They left behind numerous cave paintings depicting a variety of activities and a written language that has still to be deciphered.
The Moors also left their mark, they brought sophisticated irrigation systems and introduced a number of important tree and food crops. They also established a network of footpaths still in use today that link villages, remote farmhouses and freshwater springs.
