Peñón de Ifach

The Peñón de Ifach is a limestone outcrop 332 metres tall and just over a kilometre long that rises almost sheer from the sea, joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, in Calpe. It formed more than 300 million years ago, during the Triassic period, and over the centuries served as a landmark for Phoenician sailors and a lookout point for Romans and Muslims, who used its height to watch over the coast.

One of the smallest natural parks

The regional government declared it a natural park on 19 January 1987, with an initial area of 45 hectares that made it one of the smallest natural parks in Spain; it was expanded to 53.3 hectares in 2015. The rock is home to more than 400 catalogued plant species, some of them endemic and endangered, such as the Ifach silene, and its cliffs shelter colonies of seabirds, including the European shag and the peregrine falcon.

Climbing to the top

A tunnel cut through the rock connects its two flanks and leads to the route up to the summit, which has limited access and requires booking in advance. From up there, and also from the base near the Baños de la Reina, the views stretch across much of the Marina Alta coastline. The rock is also visible from the Murallas Medievales del Casco Antiguo and from the Torre de la Peça, two more stops on a walk through Calpe's heritage, and a regular feature on lists of the area's best viewpoints.