Castañar de Ibor Caves
The karst caves emphasize delicate speleothems made of aragonite and calcite.

In Castañar
de Ibor, a town placed in the province of Cáceres, it is located
a karst cave whose scientific value and striking
beauty is one of the most important of Spain.
The cave is composed of Precambrian carved stones,
the result is a fascinating inner adorment.
The unique wide variety of exuberant speleothems
is on its galleries ceiling and walls.
The aragonite and calcite are, sometimes, dyed by iron and manganese
oxides, this provides the stone a special touch where
free shapes and colours appear before our eyes.
The Region of Los Ibores-Las Villuercas
is placed at the South-East of Cáceres province. In a mountainous
landscape stand out quartzite crests separated by deep valleys; this sort of
relief is known as appalachian relief , because of the common features with
the Appalachians Mounts.
The mountainous relief help Tagus and Guadiana rivers to form
rivers, streams, waterfalls, ...
Regarding Extremadura's climate the Viluercas-Ibores is a quite
rainy climate. This helps the growth of chestnut
trees, oaks, cork oaks, etc.
The bushes (dwarf oaks, rockroses,
strawberry trees, ...) intermingle with crops and the alders,
ashes, and willows that grow up on the banks.
Due to the water a great amount of birds and animals live nearby the ponds,
rivers and streams. Among all the species the black stork
stands out.
It is quite common to find hunting species such as roe
deers, rabbits, partridges, or deers. Besides in the wet shady places
a peculiar laurel tree grow up.
