Rising amid a ring of dark, angular mountains, the full natural drama of RONDA is best appreciated as you enter the town. Built on an isolated ridge of the sierra, it's split in half by a gaping river gorge, El Tajo , which drops sheer for 130m on three sides. Still more spectacular, the gorge is spanned by a stupendous eighteenth-century arched bridge, the Puente Nuevo , while tall whitewashed houses lean from its precipitous edges.

Much of the attraction of Ronda lies in this extraordinary view, or in walking down by the Río Guadalévin, following one of the donkey tracks through the rich green valley. Bird-watchers should look out for the lesser kestrels nesting in and launching themselves from the cliffs beneath the Alameda park. Lower down you can spot crag martins. The town itself is also of interest and, surprisingly, has sacrificed little of its character to the flow of day-trippers from the Costa del Sol The Town

Ronda divides into three parts: on the near (northwest) side of the gorge, where you'll arrive, is the largely modern Mercadillo quarter. Across the bridge is the old Moorish town, the Ciudad , and further south still, its San Francisco suburb.

The Ciudad retains intact its Moorish plan and a great many of its houses, interspersed with a number of fine Renaissance mansions. It is so intricate a maze that you can do little else but wander at random. However, at some stage, make your way across the bridge and along Calle Santo Domingo, also known as Calle Marqués de Parada, which winds round to the left. At no. 17 is the somewhat arbitrarily named Casa del Rey Moro , an early eighteenth-century mansion built on Moorish foundations. The gardens ( but not the house itself ) have recently been opened to the public (daily 10am-8pm;), and from here a remarkable underground stairway, the Mina , descends to the river; these 365 steps (which can be slippery after rain), guaranteeing a water supply in times of siege, were cut by Christian slaves in the fourteenth century. There's a viewing balcony at the bottom where you can admire the Tajo's towering walls of rock and its bird life.

Further down the same street is the Palacio del Marqués de Salvatierra , a splendid Renaissance mansion with an oddly primitive, half-grotesque frieze of Adam and Eve on its portal. The house is still used by the family and was closed to visitors in 2000, though visits may resume in the future (details from the turismo). Just down the hill you reach the two old town bridges - the Puente Viejo of 1616 and the single-span Moorish Puente de San Miguel ; nearby, on the southeast bank of the river, are the distinctive hump-shaped cupolas and bizarre glass roof-windows of the old Baños Árabes (Tues 9.30am-1.30pm & 4-6pm, Wed-Sat 9.30am -3.30pm; free). Dating from the thirteenth century and recently restored, the complex is based on the Roman system of cold, tepid and hot baths and is wonderfully preserved; note the barrel-vaulted ceiling and brickwork octagonal pillars supporting horseshoe arches, all underlining the sophistication of the period.

At the centre of the Ciudad quarter on Ronda's most picturesque square, the Plaza Duquesa de Parcent, stands the cathedral church of Santa María La Mayor (daily 10am-7pm;), originally the Arab town's Friday mosque. Externally it's a graceful combination of Moorish, Gothic and Renaissance styles with the belfry built on top of the old minaret. The interior is decidedly less interesting, but you can see an arch covered with Arabic calligraphy, and just in front of the current street door, a part of the old Arab mihrab , or prayer niche, has been exposed. Slightly west of the square on c/Montero lies the Casa de Mondragón , probably the real palace of the Moorish kings (Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat & Sun 10am-3pm;). Inside, three of the patios preserve original stuccowork and there's a magnificent carved ceiling, as well as a museum covering local archeology and aspects of Moorish Ronda.

To the northeast of the Plaza Duquesa de Parcent on c/Armiñan, which bisects La Ciudad, at no. 29 you'll find the new Museo Lara (daily 10am-8pm; ¬3.60), containing the collection of rondeño Juan Antonio Lara, a member of the family who own and run the local bus company of the same name. An avid collector since childhood, Señor Lara has filled the museum with a fascinating collection of antique clocks, pistols and armaments, musical instruments and archeological finds, as well as early cameras and cinematographic equipment.

Near the end of the Ciudad are the ruins of the Alcázar , destroyed by the French in 1809 ("from sheer love of destruction", according to Richard Ford), and now partially occupied by a school. Once it was virtually impregnable - as indeed was this whole fortress capital, which ruled an independent and isolated Moorish kingdom until 1485, just seven years before the fall of Granada.

The principal gates of the town, the magnificent Moorish Puerto de Almocabar , through which passed the Christian conquerors (led personally by Fernando), and the triumphal Puerta de Carlos V , erected later during the reign of the Hapsburg emperor, stand side by side to the southeast of the Alcázar at the entrance to the suburb of San Francisco.

The Mercadillo quarter, which grew up in the wake of the Christian conquest, is of comparatively little interest, with just a couple of buildings worth a quick look. The first is a remarkably preserved inn where Miguel Cervantes once slept, the sixteenth-century Posada de las Ánimas ( also known as the Hogar del Pensionista ) in Calle Cecilia, the oldest building in the quarter. The other is the eighteenth-century Plaza de Toros (daily 10am-8pm;) , close by the Plaza de España and the beautiful cliff-top paseo from which you get good views of the old and new bridges. Ronda played a leading part in the development of bullfighting and was the birthplace of the modern corrida (bullfight). The ring, built in 1781, is one of the earliest in Spain and the fight season here is one of the country's most important. At its September feria the corrida goyesca , honouring Spain's great artist Goya, who made a number of paintings of the fights at Ronda, takes place in eighteenth-century costume. You can visit the bullring to wander around the arena, and there's a museum inside.

The Puente Nuevo bridge's bar (now closed) was originally the town prison and last saw use during the Civil War, when Ronda was the site of some of the south's most vicious massacres. Hemingway, in For Whom the Bell Tolls , recorded how prisoners were thrown alive into the gorge. These days, Ronda remains a major military garrison post and houses much of the Spanish Africa Legion, Franco's old crack regiment, who can be seen wandering around town in their tropical green coats and tasselled fezzes. They have a mean reputation.