A POEM A DAY - EL BARRANC DE L'ENCANTÁ



This image is of the 'Gorg del Salt', the waterfall cascading into a deep green pool, part of the river system known as the 'Barranc de L'encantá', the Ravine of the Enchanted. The river cuts through the rock, collecting in pools and falls. 


The legend of the Enchanted is a local myth dating back to when these lands were populated by the descendants of the Arab Kingdom of Al Andalus. When Felipe III decreed the expulsion of the Moorish population the people of the Vall de Gallinera were forced to leave. The legend states that they left a wonderful treasure hidden in a cave in the Barranc, which stretched for 14 kilometres from the village of Planes to the mouth of the river Serpis near the village of Beniarrés. The treasure was guarded by a young women who was enchanted to be its guardian. Various versions tell that she was a beautiful maid from the waist up, with the lower body of a goose, who wore a golden crown that shone with sunlight when she left her cave every 100 years. Other tales tell of her search for a country boy who could chose between her company or the gold crown. If he chose the gold he would be found lifeless in the ravine. If he chose the enchanted maid he would join her for eternity in her enchantment. 


As far as I am aware no treasure has been found and the enchanted guardian is waiting another hundred years before leaving her cave. Whatever the origins of the myth,  the Barranc de L'Encantá is certainly a place of wild beauty with its own particular enchantment. 

© 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved. 


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