Acueducto del Águila

Built in the 1870s to carry water to a sugar mill down in Maro, the Águila aqueduct crosses the ravine on four stacked tiers of brick arches, with a small tower and a painted eagle on top that gives it its name. It still works, which is why it has never been turned into a monument with a ticket office.

It photographs like a Roman ruin that happens to be in perfect condition: thirty-six arches, warm brick and whitewash against a green ravine, with the Sierra Almijara behind. Stand below and it fills the frame; stand back on the path and you get the whole structure with mountain on both sides.

Late afternoon light comes across the valley and separates the tiers; morning leaves it flat and back-lit. In winter, when the ravine has water, the sound alone changes the mood of the frames.

There is a small pull-in on the old coast road, and the walk to the viewpoint takes a couple of minutes. Nothing to pay and nothing to book. You cannot go up on the aqueduct itself — it is a working water channel — so the shot is from below or from the side path.