Guadix, Spain

When travelling in Europe, one of the best ways to visit places is by car. Car rental is an inexpensive and efficient way to see many different places, some of which are not accessible by public transportation. It also allows for a greater freedom when travelling, and one often finds unexpected sights along the way. When travelling through Spain by car, one of these unexpected surprises was Guadix, a small town that I stumbled upon when driving from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Granada. About half of the 20,000 residents of Guadix live in cave houses dug into the sides of the hills. This type of dwelling is common throughout this area but Guadix has the highest concentration of cave houses. Looking out over the town, the skyline is punctuated by white chimneys protruding from grassy rooftops. New houses are still being built in this way - cavernous spaces dug out of the sides of the hills, walls reinforced with steel mesh and plastered over. I was able to wander around, inside, and on top of the cave houses.

Will Wingfield