El Camino Del Ray

The English translation 'The King's little pathway' is a walkway, which has now fallen into major disrepair. It was constructed along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, in the district of Malaga, Southern Spain. The name is often shortened to Camino del Rey.



In 1901 the workers at the hydroelectric power plants at Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls needed a walkway to cross between the falls, to provide transport for materials, and to undertake the inspection and maintenance of the channel. Construction of the walkway took four years and it was finished in 1905.

In 1921 King Alfonso XIII crossed the walkway for the inauguration of the dam Conde del Guadalhorce and it then became known by its present name.

The walkway has now gone many years without any maintenance, and is in an extremely dangerous condition. It is one metre (3 feet and 3 inches) in width, and is over 100 metres (350 feet) above the river. Nearly all of the path has no handrail. Some parts of the concrete walkway have completely collapsed and all that remains is the steel beam originally in place to hold it up.

Several people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years; after four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. To this day it remains illegal to cross. However policing is extremely minimal and many adventurous tourists still find their way onto the walkway to explore it.

The regional government of Andalusia budgeted in 2006 for a restoration plan estimated at € 7 million.