the European capital of cave culture. 4,000 people inhabit some 2000 cave-houses It’s thought that the first inhabitants came here after Granada, the last bastion of Moorish Spain, fell to the Castilians in 1492. As moriscos (Muslims forcibly converted to Catholicism) became persecuted, then rebelled in 1568, many fled from Granada and their enclave in the Alpujarra mountains. The Guadix cave area made the perfect hideaway. Their predicament worsened in 1609-14 when the moriscos were ordered to definitively leave Spain. Those who were desperate to remain or couldn’t afford to leave, took refuge in caves – and stayed.