Totana

Six kilometres northwest of Totana, La Bastida occupies a hillside that once held one of the major settlements of the Argaric world. Its excavated walls, terraces and house plans give the place an urban scale surprising to anyone expecting a scattering of prehistoric huts. The setting also explains why position and control mattered.

La Bastida belonged to the Bronze Age culture of south-eastern Iberia. Excavation has exposed substantial defensive works and evidence for closely organised domestic life. The site is an archaeological landscape, so its most important features are often low foundations rather than standing monuments. A guide can restore the heights, routes and social choices that are hard to imagine from stones alone.