Cuenca has dubbed itself the 'City of Light' ...though exactly why isn't made clear in the tourist information I amassed.

The place has no more daylight than any other and less in some cases (see top left). As observed in the previous page, Cuenca was once a pivotal seat in the Spanish Inquisition ...something I didn't expect ...but might go some way to explaining why it is impossible to walk more than five-hundred yards in the old town without finding yet another place of worship! Nuns and priests seem to outnumber ordinary folk!

Both of these grand building are on the same plaza and belie the cosy absence of space that is obvious in most of the rest of Cuenca's old town. This plaza is also one of the better places to try the area's tapas ...though some dishes are not for the faint-hearted!

Some of the local rock formations look odd until you realise that they are the product of costal erosion ...dating from a day when Spain's costas looked very different. I'm no geologist ...but I have found a site by some people who have a few things to say on the subject ...knock yourself out!

You could be in Holland with tall, thin houses like this ...the only problem is the hills that Holland doesn't have. The usual driving forces the cause buildings of this kind are the shortage of land and an inflated cost of same.

There's one puzzle about Cuenca ...why would anybody even start building a town that is so far away from everything else? Slightly more puzzling is why enough people copied the crazy idea that it turned into a thriving community!