Guadix

Guadix is a small city on the road between Tabernas (Fort Bravo) and Córdoba.  Our interest in it was as the nearest place where we probably find a hotel when we found the only one in Tabernas to be full.  We read about it in the guidebook and headed out of town.  As we left town and headed towards the highway (which bypassed the town) we found a run-down hotel with an elderly lady running it, and it had a room (it was empty) and had secure parking for the bike.  Without our need for a room we would have ignored Guadix and missed an interesting attraction (and some really unique pottery).  This city has an entire district of underground houses and a museum of them.

We entered Guadix through another road construction project and ate more dust.  We soon found the directional signs to the Troglodyte district and the museum.  We were there at 10:30 and it was supposed to open at 10, but it didn't until 11:00.  Meanwhile we prowled through the souvenir shop while the proprietress set up the outside displays.  There was a large assortment of plates and bowls with really interesting designs painted on them and then fired. 

There were also some delicate, unglazed jugs that would never have made it home in one piece.  But the really interesting thing was the way the houses were cut out of the soft rock.

The rooms had been hacked out of the hillside with an adze or similar tool, the marks were still visible under the whitewashed walls and ceiling.  The rooms were small, I thought surprisingly so when all it took was some more digging and the room would not be so crowded.  The kitchen at left, with its hearth and chimney was about 6' by 8' and 7' high in the center.  The bedrooms just barely held the bed with room to scoot down one side.  The doorway less than 5' high.

There was a large district that was all these Troglodyte houses with streets that wound around through the hillocks and knobs.  You could see chimneys everywhere even when you couldn't see a house.  Some of the houses were very nice, particularly those near the museum.  Though as one went deep into the district you discovered that some of the houses were just mud doorways and a chimney.

As part of the museum display their was a couple of manikins dressed in traditional garb.

This only took a couple of hours and we were on the road to Córd6ba arriving in plenty of time to find our chosen hostel full, and the youth hostel was full too.