The access road runs through a relatively easy forest track; this track is taken from the same town of Marmolejo, after crossing the bridge over the Guadalquivir River at the height of the spa.

Right on the north bank of the river a right turn is taken towards the Aliseda, follow those signs and this way for 12.5 km until you reach the closed control door. There you can leave the vehicle and put things on the other side by entering the pedestrian door.

This point is especially suitable for those fans with telescopes and their own means in search of an outstanding sky and with light-taking to connect their equipment.

The Archaeological Set of Catulo and its monographic museum in Linares are the ideal sites to know the cultural diversity of Andalusia. The Ibero-Roman city is located on the right bank of the Guadalimar River, it is one of the capital centers of the peninsular noon during the antiquity, both for the extension of its walled enclosure (70 hectares), and for its strategic position in the Alto Guadalquivir and its mining holdings of silver, lead and copper. The "oppidum"- or fortified city - of Cattulo, first, was the most important nucleus of the population of the Iberian Oretania and, later, was formed as a Roman municipality, becoming episcopal headquarters in the lower-imperial era.

Catulus, Ibero-Roman city

The archaeological area of Catulo comprises a vast surface where multiple evidence is overlapping which are expression of other forms of occupation. There are necropolis, factories, public infrastructure and other suburban facilities related to the Ibero-Roman city, but also other settlements from Prehistory to the low Middle Ages, which complete the historical value of this archaeological area. This complex stratigraphic and temporal sequence, which has reached our time in exceptional conditions of conservation and integrity, is a significant segment of the entire history of Andalusia.

The tour begins with the reception center, where the visitor will find all the keys to understand the historical development of the site. In the walls you can make a stop in the highest part of the city and visit the Gate of the Lions of the Republican period, where the famous León de Catulo, the best preserved of the entire Iberian peninsula, was discovered. In the central area of the plateau do not forget to make a tour of the different archaeological areas and to contemplate the spectacular "Mosaic of the Amores," considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of 2012 by the magazine National Geographic. Also in the same area you can see an important religious building within which the "Patena de Cristo" was discovered, a fourth-century glass dish with one of the best preserved images of Christ which is currently exposed in the Museum of Linares. At the most eastern end of the settlement, you can see the Castle of Santa Eufemia, a fortification that dates from the Arab period and is also part of the cultural itinerary Route of the Castles and the Battle.

Archaeological Museum

This museum cannot be understood in its integrity without reference to the Archaeological Set of Cattulo, as they are intimately related. In fact, an important impetus in the development of the Museum occurs when the expropriation of the lands of the former Cattulo is carried out, a process that began in 1968 and concluded in 1972, thus facilitating the research work that has been carried out in these areas since 1958 and from where the most important and numerous part of the collection comes from.

The tour is arranged on several floors, a covered courtyard and the basement. Its rooms treasure the most important findings of Catulus, including the Ibero-Roman Lion dating back to the 1st century BC and the Patena of Christ dating back to the 4th century AD.

Discovered in 1992. It currently reaches a total of 5.117 m of development with important prospects for exploring new galleries. This very important complex is located in the vicinity of the Pantano de la Bolera, in the Barrio known by Arroyo de la Rambla, the two mouths of access are opened in the municipal term Peal de Becerro (Jaén) and much of the cavity is developed under the term Cazorla (Jaén). Along with this large complex, several more cavities have been located that have not been able to communicate to date (PB-1, PB-2, PB-5, PB-7), which were certainly part of it at the time, and these cavities are currently being explored.

The main entrance, of small dimensions, provides access to a floor room that is damaged by the blocks that cover it, ceilings between two and four meters high and spacious, allowing to accommodate several dozen people. At the bottom, between blocks, the sinuous continuation is opened. Close steps and several descending highlights lead almost to the level of the ravine, and it is often found flooded. The water input is done through the PB-6 sink. A narrow corridor with clay-covered floor, followed by several climates, leads again to the level of the entrance room, out of reach of the waters. The transit through them is balized, to try to mitigate as much as possible the alteration of the floor, after the steps to be followed you have to climb to a top floor with the help of a small staircase of about 10 m.

This apartment is characterized by a succession of steps between blocks that once stranded back down to the level of the gallery. From this point the continuation is more problematic, as the succession of ramps, steps between blocks, des climes, etc. make their description very monotonous. The second staircase opens a large room and an almost horizontal corridor of about 100 meters with the floor covered with gours and ceilings with large stalactic blankets, flags, etc. We meet about 700 meters from the mouth. A new drop to a siphon (usually dry) allows the passage, also between blocks, rips, and narrow steps of about 300 meters of very accidental gallery that leads to the final room or the siphon. Large room with different possibilities of continuation.

The 60-meter-long siphon with a penetrable gap to 6 meters under water leads to a descending gallery that connects with a large cavity, circulated by an active river that spills its waters in the Valentine's Source (PB-1 and PB-5). Currently in exploration of spelologists. This succession of rooms is beautifully decorated by spelotems in various ways, among which are predominantly ceilings covered with stalactite stylized.

About a hundred meters from the mouth, a new succession of weeds return us to the theoretical level of water, changing the morphology of the cavity strongly. After several stretches and decreases the dimensions of the gallery increase. In this area the two possible entries to the Network of the Talegas are located (flooded sectors, Red Gallery, Sala Alicia, etc.). Continuing through the main gallery you can reach the Paso Javi, a small laminator that cuts a rock barrier (this step is very common to find it flooded), if it is under the waters, the pass is carried out by a strong ramp to the right of the pass, followed by a vertical - easy to overdo - descent that goes down to the level of the main gallery, after the Paso Javi. The continuation is obvious, just follow the gallery, yes, with some other narrowing and passage between blocks, until you reach the gallery of the Levels, easy to recognize by the calcite sidewalks that go through all the walls, blocks and other speleotems.

From here a new rebound between blocks and slices lead to the header of some scarves. A few meters before reaching them and on the left wall, several narrow steps are opened, between blocks, which reach the base of these scarves. It is entering the Cebra Gallery, thus called by the successive levels of floating calcite that have been fixed on the clay walls; corresponding to different flood stadiums.

Source: Inventory of Georresources of Andalusia. Environmental Council. Junta de Andalusia.

The museum offers us a tour of different aspects of traditional life, such as the stays of the serrana house, the rural school, the barbershop, the old inn, the stable and the trades related to the forest. There is also a small shop for crafts and food.

The small and isolated valley of Los Anchos, surrounded by mountains, is of an overwhelming beauty, especially in the autumn, when the wings of the stream become yellow.

The village of Los Anchos is one of the best preserved in the Natural Park. Very close to it there are two others around which you have to take a walk, which are those of Prado Maguillo and La Cañada del Saucar. From this last part a senderist route marked PR-A 196, which goes up to the Calar del Cobo, specifically to the Puntal of the Mass, one of the best viewpoints of the Natural Park. In Prado Maguillo there are also signposted trails.

You can visit the Interpretation Centre in Vilches (currently closed by reforms) and learn about the historical evolution of this important site, but there is a fence that closes the passage to the fortified city, so it is necessary to telephone the City Hall in advance, on working hours from 8: 00 to 14: 00, to make an appointment.

In the archaeological enclave you can visit a prehistoric sanctuary, an Iberian village, a cenobium or eemite paleocristian or visigode and a Almohad castle, all surrounded by beautiful landscapes between olive and saw. Landscape, culture, heritage, history, nature, hiking... are intermingled in Giribola, where it is possible to appreciate the footprint left by different peoples and cultures over the centuries.

Thus, along with the vestiges of the castle, the traveller will also be able to see the remains that are still preserved from the great wall surrounding the Iberian oppidum, an important city that occupied a strategic place on the road of connection between Catulo and the Levant and that was abandoned after being swept away by the Romans. Similarly, the numerous caves that are distributed on the slopes of the hill, the so-called Cuevas de Espeluca, are also interesting.

Declared Good of Cultural Interest in 2014, the La Calderona tank in Porcra (Jaén) is a water tank in the Roman city of Obulco, which is presumed to be linked to a water infrastructure of themunicipum,Maybe public hot springs. In the time of the Roman Empire, the growth of the large walled city led to the area being covered with large stone pillars on which new constructions were settled, thus starting what became its final burial.

In the Spanish civil war the tank served as an anti-aircraft shelter. In a fortuitous way, there was a finding that put the experts on the track of the original infrastructure: as they went down to the ground to protect themselves from the bombing, the neighbors observed that the wells they had in their homes were part of a more complex structure.

After a long and complex restoration, the tank currently in operation has been opened to the public. In order to access the level of the deposit, the intervention required, first, to build a new building, to serve as a reception centre for visitors and to integrate in turn the helicoidal ramp of down with 100 meters suspended, that do not touch the archaeological remains. In order to locate the new construction, an empty area was taken advantage of, located on one of the margins of the nearest road, so that the houses located on the Roman complex were not affected. In this way, the search for access to the tank ended up generating as added in addition to the new construction, a bridge that crosses San Marcos street and a tunnel that passes below the houses.

The project, led by the architect Pablo Millán, is based on the interrelationship of opposite realities and that, in the face of complexity, proposes a discourse based on the simplicity of a clean, geometrically precise architecture that does not conflict with the heritage architecture, present both in the Roman tank and in all the domestic buildings that appear during the archaeological intervention. In front of the space under the railing, hidden, in which the light does not enter, there is a new clear and deafan space through which the visitor travels, establishing a dialogue between the archaeological heritage and contemporary architecture.

Near the population centre is theContón de la Virgen de la Cruz, recreational area located on an old landfill recovered as a green area and crossing through a bridge the first of the previous streams. Linked to these watercourses we find a typical vegetation of riverside, in which they stand out reels, carrizos, canes, calves, and eucalyptus, alms, olmos and weeping willows.

Its northwest face belongs to Jaén and is a private mountain, with a repopulation pine. Its southeast face belongs to La Guardia and corresponds to a mountain of oak and low mountain, very altered by man's hand. In spite of this, it has the attraction of the rise to the hill on the "old road," the visit to the Cabrera Cave (whose neolithic vestiges have just passed into history by burning the entire cave) and the arrival in the recreational area of the Allanadas del Santo. It has the Hermitage of San Sebastián (pattern of La Guardia), tables, barbecues, a small football field and one of the seven geodetic vertices of the municipality of Jaén. This one with the appeal of being placed at the top of a pillar about five meters high, with a ladder to be able to climb.

The proximity to Jaén (15 to 20 minutes) allows you to visit in the summer evenings with the possibility of eating there with the family, after the small route. Access is made from La Guardia, next to the Castle of the town.