Tabernas Desert

The Tabernas Desert (Desierto de Tabernas) is a desert located within Spain's south-eastern province of Almería. It is in the interior, about 30 km north of the provincial capital Almería, in the Tabernas municipality in Andalusia. It is the only desert in Europe, since most of its area has a desert climate.

Due to its high elevation and mountainous location, it has slightly higher annual precipitation (more than 220 mm per year), and lower annual average temperature (temperatures below 17.9 C) than coastal areas of Almeria. It is a nature reserve (protected area) that spans 280 km2.

Climate


The Tabernas Desert is defined mainly by a hot desert climate, a hot semi-desert climate, a cold desert climate, and a cold semi-desert climate. Situated between the Sierra de los Filabres to the north and the Sierra de Alhamilla to the south-southeast, it is isolated from the humid winds of the Mediterranean Sea, in an area with little precipitation known as Levante.

In the lowest elevations of the Tabernas basin (about 400 m above sea level), the average annual temperature is close to 18.0 C. Due to its relative proximity to the coast and its relatively high altitude, temperatures in winter vary between 0 – in the higher altitudes to 6 – in the lower altitudes while temperatures in the summer vary from 16 – in the higher altitudes to 20 – in the lower altitudes. The annual average precipitation is 15–22 cm (depending on the zone ) with only one-third falling in the hot season (May to October). The average annual sunshine varies from 2800 to 3000 hours.

Thus the climate, from 400 –, is an arid and semi-arid type. This characteristic is also aggravated by the foehn effect.

Geology and biology
The little rainfall that occurs is usually torrential, so that the ground, consisting of marls and sandstone with little vegetation, is unable to retain moisture. Instead, the rain causes erosion, forming the characteristic landscape of badlands. Arroyos formed by torrential rain harbor the scarce vegetation, as well as fauna such as swifts, hedgehogs, jackdaws, pin-tailed sandgrouse, blue rock thrushes, stone curlews, trumpeter finches, and crested larks.

Flora and fauna
The desert is well endowed with vegetation for a desert. Plants such as the sea lavender (Limonium insignis), which are teetering on the verge of extinction, manage to flourish in the arid environment of the desert. In winter, the landscape of the desert turns white when the toadflax linaria (Nigricans lange) flowers. There are specimens of yellow scorpions (Buthus occitanus), tarantulas (Lycosa tarentulla) and black widows (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus) although it's not deadly as the American black widow. Coastal areas have lesser weevers such as Echiichthys vipera and Tachinus dracco, which usually live under the sand.

Reptiles and amphibians
The reptilian population of the desert includes ladder snakes, spiny-footed lizards and ocellated lizards. Marsh frogs, natterjack toads and terrapins inhabit the moist areas of the desert.

Birds
Birds of prey such as the Bonelli's eagles and peregrine falcons roam the desert's skies. Lesser hunters include kestrels and eagle owls. Species such as the blue rock thrush, rock sparrow, rock bunting inhabit the rocky areas of the desert whereas warblers, goldfinches, golden orioles and serins prefer the ramblas near the dry river beds.

Mammals
The desert does not have a great number of mammalian species, with the total number approximately 20. The Algerian hedgehog, besides significant rabbit, hare and dormouse species, is one of the most important mammals inhabiting the area.

Cinema
Because of its similarities to deserts in the southwestern United States, northern Mexico, northern Africa, and Arabia, Tabernas has been a popular area to shoot many films since the 1950s. The Spaghetti Westerns were shot at the three main studios, Texas Hollywood, Mini Hollywood, and Western Leone.

The sixth season of the TV series Game of Thrones was shot in locations from Andalusia to Catalonia, including the desert, which is the Dothraki Sea, a gigantic steppe in Essos, the largest continent.

Nowadays, many video clips and television commercials are shot, although from time to time it is still the setting for a film or television series, taking advantage of the photogenic landscape of the Almeria desert and thanks to the western settlements that are still standing. From the late 1950s to the present day, more than 300 films have been shot in this desert, most of them westerns.

In 2002, it shot the comedy western film 800 Bullets, directed by Álex de la Iglesia and starring Sancho Gracia. It was also filmed an episode of the seventh season of the well-known British science fiction series Doctor Who, entitled A Town Called Mercy, broadcast on BBC One on September 15, 2012, as well as several episodes of the third season of Penny Dreadful in 2015. In 2016, the desert was used as a set for the music video of Shout Out to My Ex by the British girl group Little Mix included in their fourth album. The same year scenes were also filmed for the sixth season of Game of Thrones, depicting Dothraki territory. In 2017, the exteriors of the Black Museum episode of the fourth season of the Black Mirror series were filmed.