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The Corcho Natural Viewpoint

Diputación de Málaga
Mirador del Corcho

The Corcho Natural Viewpoint

The Corcho Viewpoint is in the Nature Park of Alcornocales (Cork Oaks).

This nature park goes from the Colmenar crossroads to the Strait of Gibraltar. It spans 170,000 ha, which means it is one of the biggest forests in Europe and the widest cork oak grove.

This emblematic place overs breathtaking panoramic views.

The Nature Reserve of Los Alcornocales stretches out from the crossroads of El Colmenar, few meters from here, to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is a forest stand of 170,000ha, one of the main forests in Andalusia and the largest cork oak forest in the world.

The cork oak (Quercus suber) is a tree in the holm oak and the Portuguese oak family, characterized by its highly prized bark for the bottle stoppers production among other uses in decoration and housing air conditioning.

The cork oak bark is completely renewed every nine years. For this reason, farms are divided into nine plots so they ensure a yearly income thanks to the cork sale. Cork extraction is divided into three steps:;
1) Cork bark peeling or opening. This process that can only be done by specialists is intended to mark the planks in the trunks by cutting the cork with axes. These planks are then separated from the trunks. The planks are divided into equal pieces and stacked in piles.
2) Transportation. In this second step, mule skinners are a key factor. Helped by the mules, they are responsible for the transportation of cork planks from the deep forests to the yards. When mules are trained, they are able to transport the heavy and bulky loads from the forest to the yard even without the guide of the mule skinners.
3) Weighing and warehousing. In the yards, once planks are unloaded, they are weighed and stacked in different piles depending on the thickness and quality. At this stage, piles are sold or auctioned and then transported to their fi nal destination to be transformed.

Cork exploitation is not only an important source of incomes for owners and town halls, as the one of Cortes de la Frontera, but it also helps to keep the forests clean, preventing from forest fires and allowing other uses as livestock, honey production or heather or mushrooms harvest.

In each stopper that we have at home, there is a thousandyear- old tradition and an example of sustainability between human and forest, which has helped to keep the latest Mediterranean forests virgin. At the Centro de Intrepretación del Corcho (Cork Interpretation Centre), in Cortes de la Frontera, many cultural aspects of the cork industry as well as other curiosities are shown.

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