The whitewashed villages of Andalucía are impressive historical monuments in themselves, and their people still live according to age-old traditions, inherited from their Iberian, Roman and Moorish forefathers. The area has been settled since prehistoric times, and some of the local caves have ancient rock paintings. Many cultures have left their mark on the region, but the most influential was that of the Moors. The narrow, winding streets have a distinct, Arabic feel to them, though each village has at least one Roman Catholic Church.

Many of these villages were founded by Berber tribes who settled the area during the eight centuries of Moorish presence. They were hill farmers and the land that they settled in Andalucía was similar to that which they had left behind in North Africa. Because of the constant threat of attack - the Reconquest was bound to come sooner or later - they chose sites which were high and easy to defend. So, one thing that you are guaranteed in any of these villages is a spectacular, lofty location with wonderful views.

Ablaze in the sunlight, ashen under moonlit skies, the towns make few concessions to tourism. And like rare gems, their settings embellish them. Most of the towns begun as fortresses and are situated in what were once strategic mountain defensive spots, often spectacular sites chosen not for aesthetic reasons but for their logistical roles in the centuries-long Muslim-Christian conflict that culminated in the fall of Granada in 1492. Many towns and villages, like Arcos and Vejer, are named ``de la Frontera`` to indicate that they once marked the frontiers of Christian territory. Over the centuries, many have developed into thriving agricultural centers producing olive oil, fruit and vegetables and goat`s milk.

Why White?

Every year, once the spring rains have passed, their houses are meticulously whitewashed to a state of pristine splendor and the white provides a dazzling contrast to the brightly colored flowers which fill the streets and the ochres of their rocky mountain perches. This annual white-washing is almost a pagan act, ushering in the season of growth and fertility and saying `hasta la vista` to the winter.

Reasons for whitewashing buildings have variously included the chemical properties of the alkaline whitewash, which is antibacterial, to the socially cohesive appearance a wholly whitewashed village presents. However, it is nevertheless a fact that there is no evidence that the majority of the villages were whitewashed before the 1920s, indeed, it seems that heritage projects that have investigated paint layers on the buildings have discovered that few were whitewashed before that time, and further, that an array of pigments were added to the annual whitewashing activity, chiefly red and yellow ochres. Some decorative effects were also recorded, from the eighteenth century onwards, in a number of villages. These colored buildings survived until the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera when, it appears, an instruction was passed to the leader`s local political allies to suppress differences in villagers` choices and to disallow any deviation from a politically engineered appearance of normality.