Geosite · Peñalen
Peñalén folds: a tropical sea crumpled by the earth
In the Barranco del Arroyo de la Hoz, before and after Poveda de la Sierra, limestone layers formed in a Jurassic tropical sea appear bent into large folds by the Tertiary Alpine orogeny. Together with those of Cuevas Labradas, they form the Alto Tajo Alpine folds, a National Geosite.
Lands and landscapes
From here, follow the memory of the territory
These readings connect Peñalén folds: a tropical sea crumpled by the earth with the history, work, and villages around it.
This place across time
Which eras you can read here
A single place can preserve traces from different eras. These layers connect what you see with the stories in the atlas.
- Municipality
- Peñalen
- Province
- Guadalajara
- National Geosite
- Alpine folds
- Jurassic
- Arroyo de la Hoz
A crumpled carpet
The limestone layers seen in the cliffs of Barranco del Arroyo de la Hoz, near Peñalén and flanking Poveda de la Sierra, were originally deposited flat on the floor of a Jurassic tropical sea. Millions of years later, during the Tertiary, tectonic forces that built the Pyrenees and Alps compressed and folded them like a wrinkled carpet.
How to view them
Look at the bands in the rock: where they arch upward you see an anticline; where they dip down, a syncline. In this part of the Alto Tajo, the terrain often mirrors the folds: ridges match the crests and valleys sit in the troughs. The Spanish Geological Survey includes them, alongside those of Cuevas Labradas, as an official Geosite of Interest.
More to explore
The full story of the Jurassic sea and its folding is told in Before us. Very close by is the enchanted city of Hoya del Espino.
Location
● Reference point · ● Villages · ● Places
Location diagram. Detailed map with tracks and names loads on zoom.
Reference villages: Peñalen · Poveda de la Sierra · Taravilla · Baños de Tajo.
Open the full map and historical layers →