Benaoján
Written by Geoff Forster
Benaoján is a fairly large pueblo set just off the MA561.
We'd driven through part of Benaoján a number of times on our way to Ronda from Cortes de la Frontera.
We had been told that there are a lot of pig processing factories here, this did not encourage us to put Benaoján top of our
"Places that we must visit" list.
Well you shouldn't be put of by the odd sausage factory or two should you? So on a lovely July day we headed for Benaoján.
The sign above welcomes you to Benaoján.
Top of the list 'Exqisitas chacinas' - Exquisite cured pork products.
Bottom of the list 'Cuevas del Gato y Pileta' - Two of the most important sites of Prehistoric cave painting in Europe.
It seems that Benaoján has its own priorities.
We parked the car at the top of the pueblo. There are two large rocks in Benaoján supposed to have fallen from the Sierra above in the dim and distant past. Hopefully there was not a town here then.
Some of the houses have been built around these huge boulders.
The owner of the house below should pray that this rock doesn't join its two friends lower down! 
The next photograph is of an outcrop at the bottom of the pueblo. While I was taking the photograph there was a horrendous Alsatian dog that was attacking us fiercely through a rather thin chain link fence. Very noisy and more than a little scary.
We walked down this lovely road into the pueblo. The road was not quite as lovely on the way back up! Benaoján is very steep.
If you are thinking of staying here you will need to be very fit!
The next photo shows one of the boulders.
The next photograph is from the southern end of town looking north. you can see the two boulders set in amongst the houses.
The next four photographs are a bit of a sequence.
Through the arch and up the stairs of the first photo.
Leads you to the second.
The house in the third is at the top of the stairs in Photo 2.
Turning slightly clockwise for photo 4 across the roof of the ruin next door. 
This is the church from the small plaza. 
We needed refreshment and found a bar, I decided to test the famous pork products and had some chorizo tapas (slices of cured pork sausage) very tasty stuff. This was just down the street from the bar. 
The next two are of a lovely lady who kindly posed for us on her balcony. 
The last photograph is a street shot.
Arches, pretty winding streets, rocky outcrops with mountainsides as backdrops Andalucía makes photography easy. 
We liked Benaoján it was very steep and we had parked right at the top of the pueblo so it was a real test of stamina getting back to the car in the heat.
We then drove to the lower part of the town which is flatter and more industrialised with warehouses and factories.
We ate in a Café/bar there but they burnt the sausage which should be a crime in Benaoján.
The old part of town is fantastic and well worth a walk around.